When the city of Donetsk reached the million inhabitants mark in the 1980s, it was entitled to build its own metro system, which was designed to follow the usual layout in the Soviet Union.

Only after Ukraine gained independence, the Cabinet of Ministers issued a decree on 30 December 1991 to build the new underground metro system in Donetsk.

On 5 September 1997, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Valeriy Pustovoitenko, ordered that the first line of the system should be open to the public in 8 years (2005).

However, it later emerged that Donetsk would be one of the host cities for the Euro 2012 football championships, raising hopes for the Metro to be opened by then, although the budget that had been allocated was clearly insufficient at the time.

[4] In 2011, the city mayor announced that construction was to be suspended indefinitely due to continuing underfunding and inability to finish a first line in time for Euro 2012.

[8] The war has greatly compromised most of economic projects that were planned in the Donetsk area due to the chronic socio-economical instability it triggered.