Zaporozhye, located on the banks of the Dnieper River in the south-east of Ukraine, is the administrative center of the Zaporozhye region, Zaporozhye district and the Zaporozhye urban community. This city occupies an important position as one of the largest administrative, industrial and cultural centers in the south of Ukraine.
Zaporozhye has a population of 710.1 thousand people (as of 2022). It has a river port and plays a significant role as a transit railway junction. The city is also an industrial center with developed branches of engineering, metallurgy, chemistry and construction. However, it is worth noting that many industrial enterprises contribute to the city’s air pollution.
Zaporozhye and its environs have been threatened by armed conflicts since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These events led to numerous shelling and bombing by Russia, which led to the destruction of residential buildings and civilian casualties.
For a long time it was believed that Zaporozhye was founded in 1770 during the laying of the Alexander Fortress.
However, in 2014, the city council established that the date of foundation should be considered 952, linking this with the end of the treatise of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus on the “management of the empire”, which mentions settlements on both banks of the Dnieper and the island of Khortytsya, although the exact date of foundation remains a matter of controversy and debate among scholars.