The first is connected with the term derkach, the Ukrainian name for the corncrake that inhabits the banks of the local Lopan river.

[citation needed] The town lies in the valley of the Lopan river, north-west of Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv.

The T2103 Regional Highway passes through Derhachi from the north-west to south-east, connecting it with Kharkiv and Zolochiv.

[5] This artefact formed part of a Scythian World Tree and is now on show at the Kharkiv Historical Museum.

In 2018 and 2019, an archaeological expedition from Kharkiv Historical Museum carried out excavations of the Scythian kurgan or burial mound in the western part of Derhachi.

Scholars examined the mounds and put together a collection of items that provided information about the funeral rites of the Scythian period.

Traditionally, a sotnyk (head of a sotnia) in Derkachi was a member of a family, well known in Sloboda Ukraine, the Kowalewskis (Dołęga coat of arms).

[14] On September 28, 2014, a monument to Lenin was toppled in the city, parallel to the regional center, by unknown masked youths.

[16][17] During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the town saw shelling and fighting as part of the battle of Kharkiv, resulting in civilian casualties.

[19] Russian troops failed to occupy Derhachi, unlike large swaths of Kharkiv Oblast.

The buses on this route go via the central street Sumsky Shliakh, then pass through the town of Mala Danylivka to the center of Kharkiv (bus station Tsentralnyi Rynok).

The largest enterprises in the town are: the UBC Group which manufactures refrigeration and brewing equipment[24] and Amcor which produces packaging for the tobacco industry.