Hero City of Ukraine
Four of these cities are located in Ukraine, with the title having been awarded to Odesa, Sevastopol, Kyiv and Kerch while the country was known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The two Crimean cities of Sevastopol and Kerch were occupied by Russia at the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War in February 2014, and were declared annexed in March 2014, but remain in internationally recognized territory of Ukraine.
The first official usage of the title is dated to May 1, 1945, when Joseph Stalin issued his Supreme Commander Order No.
In a public broadcast, Zelenskyy stated: "I decided to mark our Hero Cities with a special title that already existed.
"In addition to renewing the status of Kyiv, Odesa, Sevastopol and Kerch, decree 111 also awarded the title to the cities of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mariupol,Volnovakha, and the rural settlement of Hostomel.
The fierce battle in defense of the city lasted until October 16, when the remaining Soviet troops, as well as 15,000 civilians were evacuated by sea.
The Soviet Black Sea port of Sevastopol was a heavily defended fortress on the Crimean peninsula.
Having failed to take the city, Axis forces began a siege and heavy bombardment, with such unusual pieces of ordnance as the Mörser Karl self-propelled mortar, and the gigantic Schwerer Gustav railroad cannon.
A second Axis offensive against the city, launched in December 1941, failed as well, as the Soviet army and navy forces continued to fight fiercely.
When the Germans commenced their offensive on July 7, Soviet forces concentrated in the Kyiv area were ordered to stand fast, and a breakout was prohibited.
However, in military terms, the battle was a great victory for the German Army and a disaster for the Soviets.
It had a huge effect on morale, and Adolf Hitler praised the victory as the greatest battle in history.
During the German occupation of Kyiv, hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed or deported for forced labour.
The Hero City title of Kyiv was renewed by Ukraine in 2022, and the Hero City monument was decommunized in 2023 by removing Soviet symbols and changing the date of the start of the German invasion in the USSR to that of the start of World War II, that is, from 1941 to 1939.
[6][7] Ukrainian officials reported that the Russian forces were heading towards the nearby towns of Sedniv and Semenivka.
Ukrainian military forces reportedly captured significant numbers of Russian equipment and documents.
The Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world's largest airplane, was at the airport at the time of the opening phase of the battle.
The battle, which was part of the Russian Eastern Ukraine offensive, started on February 24, 2022, and concluded on May 20, 2022, when Russia announced the remaining Ukrainian forces in Mariupol surrendered[13] after they were ordered to cease fighting.
[15][16] The Associated Press independently confirmed that the town had been captured by pro-Russian separatists and much of it had been destroyed in the fighting.
Following that evidence of mass graves dug in the town soon revealed the fact that during the battle, there were Russian Ground Forces-involved war crimes against the town's population and personnel of the Armed Forces, known as the Bucha massacre, perpetrated by personnel of RGF units stationed there as well as by paramilitaries.
