(1802 – 1918) Kryvyi Rih (/ˈkrɪviː ˈriː/; Ukrainian: Кривий Ріг, IPA: [krɪwɪj ˈr⁽ʲ⁾iɦ] ⓘ), also known as Krivoy Rog (Russian: Кривой Рог [krʲɪˈvoj ˈrok]),[4] is a city in central Ukraine.

Urban-industrial growth followed Belgian, French and British investment in the exploitation of the area's rich iron-ore deposits, generally called Kryvbas, in the 1880s.

It was a focus of the southern Ukraine campaign, but the closest ground advance by Russia stalled some 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the south of the city before it was turned back in March 2022.

Kryvyi Rih, which in Ukrainian literally means 'crooked horn' or 'curved cape', was the name originally given in the 18th century to the general area of the present city by Zaporozhian Cossacks.

In February 1918, the Bolsheviks proclaimed the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, but then in March conceded the territory under the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to the German-controlled Ukrainian State.

In the summer of 1927, 10,000 people began to work on the Dnieprostroi, a huge dam on the Dnieper River in Zaporizhzhia, whose hydro-electric power drove Kryvyi Rih's industrialisation.

[47] By the end of the Soviet era, Kryvbas was producing 42% of the USSR's and 80% of Ukrainian ore.[48] At the beginning of the 1960s, the city received a signature 185m-tall, guyed tubular steel TV mast.

[32] In last years of the Soviet Union, and following a sharp reduction in spending on cultural, sports and youth service, the city witnessed neighbourhood-based gang violence—the so-called "war of Runners".

However, in December 2020, the Servant of the People candidate for mayor, Dmytr Shevchuk, lost to Kostantin Pavlov of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life.

[70] In September, reporting on an investigation that included a search of the home of the former, and now acting, mayor, Yyriy Vilkul,[71] the Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrsky suggested that Pavlov may have committed suicide against the backdrop of a large-scale audit of the city's budget.

[73] In May, the ArcelorMittal steel plant ground to a halt as workers refused to guide trains along the factory's self-enclosed supply chain until they received monthly pay of 1,000 euros.

Management brought in employees from state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia to run the factory, breaking the strike but leaving the central dispute in place.

But the plant's upper management sees costs associated with the higher salaries that might retain workers as an unacceptable threat to an ambitious, multibillion-dollar factory modernization project.

This was after the incoming government of President Viktor Yushchenko cancelled a 2004 auction that had seen the company sold at a much lower price, to a consortium that included the son-in-law of ex-President Leonid Kuchma.

[79][77] On the first day of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, 24 February 2022, there were air strikes against military targets in the city, causing evacuations of residents in the district of Makulan.

[65][22] On the same day, Vilkul said that he had received a phone call from a former colleague who invited him to "sign an agreement of friendship, cooperation and defense with Russia"; he said that he "responded with profanity.

[22] On 30 March, ArcelorMittal which at the beginning of the month had idled its steelmaking operations in Kryvyi Rih citing concern for the safety and security of its 26,000 workers and for its assets,[89][90] announced that it was preparing to restart production.

[92] At the end of May 2022, responding to Russian rocket and missile strikes, Ukrainian forces made limited counterattacks south of Kryvyi Rih.

[96] The strike against President Zelenskyy's home town—an attempt, he suggested, to flood the city—came after his visit to towns in the Kharkiv region regained in Ukraine's first major counteroffensive.

At the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, they were won by Petro Poroshenko Bloc and independent candidates with representation being from Yuri Pavlov, Andriy Halchenko, Konstantin Usov respectively.

[103] Indie band Brunettes Shoot Blondes, folk musician Eduard Drach, actress Helena Makowska, and dancer Vladimir Malakhov originated from the city.

Ukrainian cuisine is found adjacent to a range of Jewish and popular American foods: bagels, cheesecake, hot dogs, shawarma and pizza.

There are numerous socialist realism-style monuments installed in the Soviet years to honor Cossacks, Olexander Paul, Taras Shevchenko (2), Bohdan Khmelnytsky (3, since 1954), Vasili Marguelov, Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Sergeyev, Mikhail Lermontov, and Maxim Gorky.

[120] Located 316 kilometres (200 mi) south of Kyiv, the city is the biggest by size within the Central Ukraine and being situated in the right-bank portion of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

The confluence of the river Saksahan with the Inhulets supposedly gave the name for the city by forming a geographical crooked horn ("kryvyi rih").

Foreign workers arrived, and there was increased building of social housing estates by the Kryvyi Rih City Council after the Second World War, such as Sotsmisto and Soniachnyi.

[129][131] According to the UNHCR and City Council, 7,000 people have fled to Kryvyi Rih from Donetsk and Luhansk since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, not including those who did not register as asylum seekers.

The well-known Saviour Transfiguration Cathedral in Saksahan Raion is an Orthodox administrative centre, and the bishop of the Kryvyi Rih Eparchy has his main residence here.

The Metrotram is continuously expanding towards the city limits to meet growing demand, currently has two lines with a total length of 18.7 kilometres (11.6 miles) and 11 stations.

The club's owner is the Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Combine (KZRK), the biggest subterranean mining public company in Ukraine.