Wikipedia:Today's featured list/September 9, 2024
There are 37 populated places officially granted city status in Luhansk Oblast, the easternmost region of Ukraine. Settlements with more than 10,000 people are eligible to become cities, although the status is also typically given by the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, to settlements of historical or regional importance. According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, the most populous city in the oblast was the regional capital Luhansk (pictured), with a population of 463,097, while the least populous city was Almazna, with 5,061. Following the Donbas war in 2014, 25 of the oblast's cities were occupied by pro-Russian separatists. After the enactment of decommunization laws across the country, nine cities in separatist-occupied territory were de jure given new names in 2016 which were unrecognized by pro-Russian officials in the cities. Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops have occupied all cities in the oblast since the end of the battle of Lysychansk in 2022. (Full list...)