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Novoaidar Новоайдар
Rural settlement
Coat of arms
NovoaidarLocation in Luhansk OblastShow map of Luhansk OblastNovoaidarLocation in UkraineShow map of Ukraine
Coordinates: 48°58′18″N 39°00′21″E / 48.97167°N 39.00583°E / 48.97167; 39.00583
Country	Ukraine
Oblast	Luhansk Oblast
Raion	Shchastia Raion
Hromada	Novoaidar settlement hromada
Population
• Total	7,773
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Website	https://novoaydar.ru/

Novoaidar (Ukrainian and Russian: Новоайдар) is a rural settlement in Shchastia Raion, Luhansk Oblast, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Resirence of Novoaidar settlement hromada. Novoaidar is 57km, by road from regional centre Luhansk, 43km from Sieverodonetsk, and 747km from Kyiv. Novoaidar is located on the river Aidar, and is on Highway H21, which runs from Donetsk to Starobilsk.

On March 3, 2022, just over a week after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Novoaidar was taken by Russian forces. Following the highly disputed 2022 annexation referendums in Russian-occupied Ukraine, Russia has claimed the settlement as part of their Luhansk People's Republic (LPR / LNR), and it remains under Russian control. Novoaidar has an estimated population of 7,773 (2022 estimate).

History

The area around the river Aidar was initially settled by Don Cossacks in the late 16th century. There would be extensive development of the settlement throughout the 17th, and 18th century, and in 1788/89, the settlement gained its modern name of Novoaidar. There has been a newspaper published in the area since 1931.

In 1981, the population of Novoaidar was 6500, there was a food and beverage factory, a Severodonetsk dairy shop, a Voroshilovgrad household goods factory, a poultry farm, a forestry plant, a construction company, extensive agricultural infrastructure, three secondary schools, a music school, a sports school, a hospital, a Palace of Culture, a cinema and two libraries.

In 1989, the population of Novoaidar reached its maximum to date, of 8367. Novoaidar remained part of the Ukrainian SSR until its dissolution in 1991, and was from then part of Ukraine.

2014-2022

From 2014, Novoaidar, as all of Donbas, became caught up in the aftermath of Euromaidan. From April 2014, pro-Russia separatists started taking over parts of the south and east of Ukraine. In April and early May 2014, Luhansk and the surrounding area, including Novoaidar, was taken over by Russian-backed forces of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR / LNR). The Ukrainian Government launched their Anti-Terrorist Operation in mid-April 2014, with the aim of taking back all territories under separatist control. In May, the 2014 Donbass status referendums were held. The referendums, which are vastly considered as sham, returned an overwhelming majority vote to cede from Ukraine into the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, however they were condemned by the west, and did not obtain international recognition.

Following the referendum, on May 11, Novoaidar was briefly held by the separatists, however Ukrainian forces took back control on May 14. Unlike the areas of Donbas under separatist control, the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election was held in Novoaidar. During the casting of ballots, on May 25, 2014, it was reported that about 50 armed pro-Russia rebels attacked a polling station trying to seize ballots already cast. Their attempts were reported as thwarted, with 13 of them captured, and one killed. Following the declaration of billionaire businessman Petro Poroshenko as winner of the presidential election, fighting once again flared up around Novoaidar. At this time, Novoaidar first came to attention in global media.

From June 2014 until February 2022, despite hostilities going on nearby, Novoaidar itself would not be an active zone of conflict, however it would still be affected by the ongoing war in Donbas. In the mid-2014 to early 2022 period, several civilians were reported to have been wounded by land mines, with at least one of those civilians taken to the hospital in Novoaidar.

Until July 2020, Novoaidar had served as the regional centre of the Novoaidar Raion of Ukraine. As part of the Ukrainian 2020 reform of the administrative divisions of Ukraine, the number of raions (districts) in Luhansk Oblasts was reduced to six and Shchastia Raion was created. The city of Shchastia was the official administrative center of the new raion, however as its status was only de jure due to the city was too close to territory held by the Luhansk People's Republic, Novoaidar remained the administrative center of the Shchastia Raion.

2022 on

On 3 March 2022, just over a week after 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the LPR announced that Novoaidar had been captured by Russian forces. Novoaidar itself suffered minimal damage, and no reported civilian casualties in Russia's capture, as Russian forces swept in, taking over a base of Ukraine's 79th Brigade, with Ukrainian forces retreating to nearby Sieverodonetsk and Lysychansk, which would themselves be taken by Russia several months later.

On 25 April, partisans kidnapped and killed a pro-Russian collaborator, who reportedly gave away names and addresses of local political activists, veterans of the Ukrainian Army, and suspected guerilla fighters.

In mid-September 2022, Ukraine claimed that Russian forces had suffered heavy losses in fighting there. Russia's annexation referendum was held there in September 2022. Since then, Novoaidar has been administered by Russia as part of their LPR. In January 2023, Russia reported that Ukraine had shelled a hospital in Novoaidar, killing 14 people and wounding 24 patients and medical staff.

Although being a regional centre under Ukraine, it is unclear what, if any, status Novoaidar now holds in Russian-controlled LPR.

Demographics

As of the 2001 Ukrainian census, the town had a population of 9,020 people. Like in most other major settlements in Eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, the majority of the local population is ethnically Ukrainian, yet mostly Russian-speaking. The exact linguistic composition was as follows:

References

1. ^ "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 3". 3 March 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
2. https://z.mil.ru/spec_mil_oper/media/video/watch.htm?id=17464@morfVideoAudioFile Archived 2023-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ "Moscow's proxies in occupied Ukraine regions report big votes to join Russia". 2022-09-28. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
4. ^ "Official Novoaidar site". Retrieved 2 April 2024.
5. Чисельність наявного населення України на 1 січня 2022 [Number of Present Population of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2022] (PDF) (in Ukrainian and English). Kyiv: State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 July 2022.
6. Королев, В. Н. Донские казачьи городки. — Новочеркасск. : Дончак, 2011. — С. 144. — ISBN 978-5-904079-41-3.
7. № 2920. Красное знамя // Летопись периодических и продолжающихся изданий СССР 1986—1990. Часть 2. Газеты. М., «Книжная палата», 1994. стр.382
8. Novoaidar // Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia. volume 7. Kiev, "Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia", 1982. p.335
9. "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 Численность городского населения союзных республик, их территориальных единиц, городских поселений и городских районов по полу" [The All-Union Population Census of 1989 determined the number of urban populations of the Union's republics, their territorial units, urban settlements and urban areas by gender]. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
10. "Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine". 16 July 1990. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
11. "'Casualties' in Ukraine gun battles". 13 April 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
12. "Luhansk". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
13. "NINE YEARS AGO, RUSSIA UNLEASHED WAR IN DONBAS". April 13, 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
14. "Russia Calls for "Civilized Implementation" of East Ukraine Referendum Results". The Wall Street Journal. 12 May 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
15. "Russia recognises Ukraine separatist regions as independent states". BBC News. 21 February 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
16. ^ "Billionaire candy-maker Petro Poroshenko wins Ukraine presidential election". 25 May 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
17. Zelenskyy in the Conflict Zone: Liberated Regions in 1942 to Occupied in 2018, Hromadske.TV (11 May 2020)
18. "Ukraine crisis: Troops abandon Luhansk airport after clashes". 1 September 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
19. "Landmine blast injures civilian in Luhansk region". 1 September 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
20. "Чисельність наявного населення України (Actual population of Ukraine)" (PDF) (in Ukrainian). State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
21. "Про утворення та ліквідацію районів. Постанова Верховної Ради України № 807-ІХ". Голос України (in Ukrainian). 18 July 2020. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
22. "Нові райони: карти + склад" (in Ukrainian). Міністерство розвитку громад та територій України.
23. "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 3". Institute for the Study of War. 2022-03-03. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
24. "Войските на ВСУ изоставят техниката: Руските сили превзеха Новоайдар ВИДЕО". Blitz (in Bulgarian). March 5, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
25. "From poisoned pie to oiled-up train tracks: How 'partisans' are fighting a war of sabotage for Ukraine". www.thestar.com. 2022-05-12. Archived from the original on 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2024-08-16.
26. "Occupiers suffering significant losses in Svatove and Novoaidar, intensifying "mobilization" in occupied territory". 20 September 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
27. "Russia: 14 killed in 'deliberate' attack on hospital in Ukraine". 28 January 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
28. "Russia accuses Ukraine of killing 14 in 'deliberate' strike on hospital". 28 January 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
29. "Всеукраїнський перепис населення 2001" [All-Ukrainian population census 2001]. 2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2024-03-02.

External links

Media related to Novoaidar at Wikimedia Commons

• Rural settlements in Shchastia Raion
• Populated places established in the Russian Empire
• Populated places established in 1685
• Novoaidar settlement hromada