Sloviansk was one of the focal points in the early stages of the war in Donbas, in 2014, as it was one of the first cities to be seized and controlled by Russian-backed rebels (separatists), in mid-April 2014.

[9] Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city's population fell markedly, to around 24,000 by July 2022, due to shelling, and ongoing war, according to Ukrainian authorities.

[11] The history of Sloviansk dates back to 1645 when Russian Tsar Alexei Romanov founded a border fortress named Tor[12] against the Crimean attacks and slave raids on the southern suburbs of modern Ukraine and Russia.

[16] In 1827, military doctor A. Yakovlev was the first to use mud treatment and bathing in Lake Ropne to treat sick soldiers.

[16] The 2014 Ukrainian revolution for the most part passed Sloviansk by, with no large-scale gatherings or events in the city, and polls showing people in the east of Ukraine to be largely opposed to the Maidan movement in Kyiv.

On 12 April 2014, in the crisis and chaos which gripped the country following the revolution's installing of the First Yatsenyuk government, a reported 55 armed men, led by Russian military veteran Igor Girkin, known as 'Igor Strelkov' stormed Sloviansk, quickly capturing the executive committee building, the police department, and the SBU office of the city.

[26][28] Initially, the pro-Russia rebels enjoyed strong support, with the New York Times reporting: "Thousands of residents thronged a large square in front of City Hall to welcome the pro-Russian putsch, chanting “Russia, Russia” and posing for photographs with gunmen they hailed as their saviors from the fascists who had seized power in Kiev with the February ouster of President Victor F. Yanukovych, a Russian-speaker from Donetsk.

Nelya Shtepa appeared, the first time she had been seen in public since mid-April, and gave a pro-Russian speech on stage, urging people to vote in the referendum scheduled for 11 May.

[33] Referendums went ahead across Donbas on 11 May, including Sloviansk, with the pro-Russia side reporting a turnout of near 75%, with over 90% voting for self rule as part of the Donetsk/Luhansk People's Republics.

Ukraine's outgoing President Olexander Turchynov described the downing as a "terrorist attack," and blamed pro-Russian militants.

[40] In late June, the Ukrainian army started advancing on Sloviansk, taking strategically significant locationed, including the Karachun Mountains.

[41][42] A 10-day ceasefire, not entirely observed by either side, ended on 30 June, and in early July, faced with a full-on Ukrainian offensive, Strelkov co-ordinated the retreat of his forces from Sloviansk.

[46] General Serhiy Krivonos, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said in 2020 that the Ukrainian Army was aware of the movement of Girkin's columns out of Sloviansk but did not attack the columms: Having some information from our sources from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, we understood that they [the separatists] would come out.

[47]A series of incidents, and a difficult ongoing living situation had resulted in support for the pro-Russian rebels eroding in the near three months that Sloviansk was under their control.

The New York Times reported that 'many of the same people' who had once supported the pro-Russia rebels 'rushed into the same square to greet Ukrainian military trucks as soldiers handed out free food.

In 2015, as part of Ukraine's process of decommunization, the fate of Sloviansk's statue of Lenin, in the city's central square, became a topic of heated debate at council meetings.

Large factions from Ukrainian ultra-national groups Svoboda and the Right Sector attended these meetings, in support of the removal / destruction of the statue.

[48] Also in 2015, a plaque to the memory of Volodymyr Rybak, a Ukrainian politician killed by pro-Russian rebels in 2014, was placed in the town center.

[49] Although war continued in parts of Donbas, there were no notable incidents in Sloviansk following its recapture by Ukrainian forces in July 2014, until 2022.

[52][53][54] An April 2023 profile of Sloviansk by the Financial Times described the city as being like a 'ghost town', with mayor Vadym Lyakh having given an order to evacuate.

[55] According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census:[57] Total 2001 population: 141,066 Sloviansk is in the valley of the Kazennyi Torets River, a right tributary of the Donets, in the Donbas region.