Marinka, Ukraine

Sometime after the 1775 liquidation of Zaporizhian Sich, lands of Kalmius Palatine were initially passed to the Greek re-settlers.[6] However according to the general plan of the Aleksandrovsk county of 1830s, the area of Maryinka and surrounding villages was not colonized.[6] After the final demarcation of the government land, in 1840s on non-colonized by Greeks territory moved former Ukrainian Cossacks and state peasants (see state serf) from various counties of Poltava Governorate and Kharkov Governorate (Little Russia).[6] After the partition of Poland, at the end of 18th century here were also exiled Polish people from the Kyiv and Podolia governorates who also were under a special supervision by the local administration.[6] Unlike the state peasants who used a community land, the exiled Poles were considered as landowners ("odnodvortsy").[6]

By 1859 there were 1,318 people.[6] As a state village, Marinka belonged to the fourth stan of Aleksandrovsk county, Yekaterinoslav Governorate.[6] The village administration consisted of a village senior (head of village), a tax collector, a secretary, and a supervisor.[6] The city was under German occupation between 1941 and 1943.

Having been locked up in the police station, the Jews of the city (and the surrounding villages) were killed in a mass execution by an einsatzgruppen. The site of the massacre is located in a pit near the cemetery[7]

August 2014: Ukrainian flag over the radio tower in Marinka

Starting in mid-April 2014 pro-Russian militants captured several towns in Donetsk Oblast;[8][9] including Marinka.[10] On August 5, 2014, Ukrainian forces regained control of Marinka.[11] Ukrainian forces involved in the recapture included the Azov Battalion, whose flag flew in the city in early August.[12] In this operation one volunteer fighter was killed (a member of Azov, a Russian-citizen) and 14 wounded (9 in an explosion of a Ukrainian tank due to an anti-tank mine).[13]

The city is shelled on a regular basis, with Ukrainian troops returning fire.[14] Pro-Russian fighters accused Ukrainian troops of using their positions in Marinka to shell militant-controlled Donetsk - a claim denied by the Ukrainian military.[5]

Three people died close to a checkpoint on 10 February 2016 when a minibus while bypassing a queue drove roadside and hit a land mine.[15] (The driver had ignored land mine warning signs.[15])

According to Ukrainian MP Iryna Herashchenko, in September 2016 5,000 people lived in Marinka.[4]

On March 17, 2022, the Russian ministry of defense claimed that forces of the Donetsk People's Republic captured Marinka.[21] Ukrainian forces claimed to have retaken control of the city on 19 April 2022.[22] On March 30, 2022, State Emergency Service staff put out "dozens of fires" that had started in the town because of white phosphorus munitions attacks by Russian forces.[23] On April 26, 2022, another Russian attempt to attack Marinka is repelled by Ukrainian forces, according to the head of Donetsk regional military administration Pavlo Kyrylenko.[24]

• 
  Central part of Marjinka
• 
  World War II memorial
• 
  Administrative building
• 
  Afghan War memorial in city park

• Marinka in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• Christopher Miller, Guns Of August: Fears Of Full-Scale War Return As Casualties Mount In Ukraine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 9 August 2016