Lutsk (Ukrainian: Луцьк, IPA: [lutsʲk] ⓘ; see below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine.

At certain times the location functioned as the capital of the principality, but the town did not become an important centre of commerce or culture.

The cross symbol of Lutsk features the highest Lithuanian Presidential award, the Order of Vytautas the Great.

[citation needed] In 1429 Lutsk was the meeting place selected for a conference of monarchs hosted by Władysław II Jagiełło and Sophia of Halshany to deal with the Tatar threat.

Those invited to attend included Sigismund, King of Hungary and Bohemia; Grand Duke Vasili II of Russia; Eric of Pomerania, king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden; the Grand Master of the Livonian Order Zisse von Rutenberg; the Duke of Szczecin Kazimierz V; Dan II, the Hospodar of Wallachia; and Prince-electors of most of the countries of the Holy Roman Empire.

That same year, the city was granted Magdeburg rights by King Władysław II Jagiełło.

[5] In 1569, Volhynia was fully incorporated into the Polish kingdom and the town became the capital of both the Łuck powiat and Volhynian Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province.

The Greek Catholic churches was turned into Orthodox Christian ones, which led to the self-liquidation of the Uniates here.

Neglected under Russian rule, by the late 19th century, the city lost its leading economic position in Volhynia to Rivne, Kovel and Zdolbuniv.

During more than a year of Austro-Hungarian occupation, Lutsk became an important military centre with the headquarters of the IV Army under Archduke Josef Ferdinand stationed there.

On 22 February 1918 the town was transferred by the withdrawing German army to the forces loyal to Symon Petlura.

[9] According to American sociologist Alexander Gella "the Polish victory [over the Red Army] had gained twenty years of independence not only for Poland but at least for an entire central part of Europe.

Several brand new factories were built both in Łuck and on its outskirts producing farming equipment, wood, and leather products among other consumer goods.

[9] The 13th Kresowy Light Artillery Regiment was stationed in the city, together with a Łuck National Defense (Poland) Battalion.

The powiat formed around the town had 316,970 inhabitants, including 59% Ukrainians, 19.5% Poles, 14% Jews and approximately 23,000 Czechs and Germans.

After panzer units of the Wehrmacht had crossed the Bug river, on 14 September the government of Poland left Łuck and headed southwards, to Kosów Huculski, which at that time was located near the Polish–Romanian border.

As a result of the invasion of Poland from both sides and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Łuck, along with the rest of western Volyn, was annexed by the Soviet Union.

The inmates were offered amnesty and in the morning of June 23 ordered to exit the building en masse.

As one of the largest cities in western Ukraine, Lutsk became the seat of the General Consulate of Poland in 2003.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that shots gas had been heard and that the bus had been damaged.

Factories producing cars, shoes, bearings, furniture, machines and electronics, as well as weaveries, steel mills and a chemical plant are located in the area.

The city was also the centre of the short-lived Ukrainian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Volhynia, Polesia and Pidliashia.

In the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the former Catholic cathedral of the Holy Trinity is the seat of the Eparchy of Volhynia.

The NKVD and Nazi massacres are mentioned in the Prix Goncourt awarded novel The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell.