Upon Ukrainian Independence, Zaliznyi Port was administratively subordinated to the Novofedorivka Village Council [uk] of Bekhtery rural hromada of Hola Prystan Raion of Kherson Oblast.

[3][9] According to official sources, in the early 1920s peasants from the city of Hladkivka, then known as Kelehei (Ukrainian: Келегеї), settled Zaliznyi Port and engaged in agricultural work, whose products were exported using ships loaded on the Black Sea coast.

[7] Following the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Zaliznyi Port developed as a popular tourist attraction for Ukrainians, due to bans on travel to the occupied Crimean peninsula.

[18][19] The National Resistance Center of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed on October 12, 2022 that an unspecified amount of Iranian military instructors were present in the settlements of Zaliznyi Port, Hladkivka, and Dzhankoi to train and monitor Russian forces in the use of Shahed-136 suicide drones.

[22] On 10 February 2023, it was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that the occupational authorities had begun issuing Russian passports to the local population of Zaliznyi Port.