Kremenchuk (/ˌkrɛmənˈtʃuːk, ˌkrɪmɪnˈ-/; Ukrainian: Кременчук, IPA: [kremenˈtʃuk] ⓘ, also spelt Kremenchug) is an industrial city in central Ukraine which stands on the banks of the Dnieper River.

The Kriukiv Railway Car Building Works is one of the oldest railway-repair and rail-car-building factories in Eastern Europe, dating from 1869.

[8][9] The name Kremenchuk is explained as deriving from the word "kremen" - flint (a mineral) because the city is located on a giant chert plate.

Following the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) and Treaty of Andrusovo, the city was secured by the Tsardom of Russia and became part of the Myrhorod Polk (regiment) within the left-bank of the Cossack Hetmanate.

The city played a key role in the Russian colonization policy of Ukraine and their striving for the shores of Black Seas as regional administrative center of the early Novorossiya Governorate and Yekaterinoslav Vice-regency (Namestnichestvo).

[10] With the creation of Novorossiya Governorate, the Dnieper Pikemen Regiment (Russian: Днепровский пикинёрный полк) was created and coincidentally a few years later (1768–69) in the neighboring regions of Poland began the Koliyivshchyna.

Here in 1786 the Russian general Alexander Suvorov started his military career when he was appointed a commander of the local garrison (in preparation of the 1787–1792 Russo-Turkish War).

During the Ukrainian–Soviet War, on 26 January 1918, Russian Bolshevik troops secured the city, however already in February of the same year they had to withdraw due to the treaty of Brest-Litovsk and advance of German and Ukrainian armies.

Following the World War I hostilities between the Bolshevik Russia and Ukraine renewed and on 1 February 1919 the Russian Red Army once again secured the city.

However, in May of the same year Kremechuk was engulfed in the insurgency of Otaman Grigoriev who earlier sided with Bolsheviks and drove the international force of Triple Entante from Odesa.

Despite a remarkable post-war recovery and a healthier economy, Kremenchuk lacks much of the architectural charm and distinctly Ukrainian (rather than Russian) character of its sister city, the oblast capital of Poltava.

[citation needed] During the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine security at the Kremenchuk Reservoir was heightened as it was seen as a possible target for saboteurs.

As a result of Jewish emigration from further north in the Pale of Settlement, many Jews from northern provinces settled in the city in the mid-19th century.

The light industries of the city include tobacco (JTI), confectionery (Roshen), a knitting factory as well as milk and meat processing plants.