The legal name of the settlement in Imperial Russian and later Soviet records was Davydo-Orlivka (Ukrainian: Давидо-Орлівка), but it was also colloquially known as "Khrestivka" (roughly meaning "Cross-town") due to a cross-shaped road sign near the village.

[2] The modern settlement was officially founded at the same site in 1954 as Nova Khrestivka (Ukrainian: Нова Хрестівка), in connection with the coal mines that were dug at the same time.

[2] On 14 April 2014 pro-Russian activists captured Kirovske's town hall and declared that the city was part of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).

[8] On 20 June 2023, Head of the DPR Denis Pushilin claimed that doctors from the Sakha Republic in Russia would be working in a hospital in occupied Khrestivka.

This was among a number of instances of patronage programs being established between Russia-occupied territories and actual Russian federal subjects, particularly Sakha.