[2] One of the original Siverian towns, Putyvl was first mentioned as early as 1146 as an important fortress contested between Chernihiv and Novhorod-Siverskyi principalities of Kievan Rus.

During the Time of Troubles, the town became the center of Ivan Bolotnikov's uprising and briefly a base for the False Dmitry I forces.

Soviet partisans led by Sydir Kovpak participated in guerrilla warfare against the Germans in the forests all over Northern Ukraine.

The foundations of its three-domed cathedral, dedicated to the Nativity of the Theotokos, belong to the 1590s, but the main part of the church is one of the earliest Baroque structures in the region, described in its entirety by Paul of Aleppo in 1654.

The city is the only settlement in the region with a population of more than 10.000 inhabitants, in which the majority speaks the Russian language natively.