Its administrative center was Dobropillia, which was incorporated separately as the town of oblast significance and did not belong to the raion.
The raion was abolished on 18 July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Donetsk Oblast to eight, of which only five were controlled by the government.
In May 2014, due to the deteriorating situation in the Donetsk Oblast, the raion requested a referendum pertaining to the transfer of Dobropillia Raion into the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where the situation was more stable.
The then Dnipropetrovsk Governor Ihor Kolomoisky announced that the oblast would be willing to do so assuming that is what the citizens want.
[4] As of the 2001 Ukrainian census:[5] This article about a location in Donetsk Oblast is a stub.