Donetsk Ukraine Information

 Donetsk Ukraine,  

Donetsk Ukraine is a heavy industrial town in Eastern Ukraine near the Russian border and not far from the Russian city of Rostov. In 2011 the population of Donetsk Ukraine is 980,000. In Ukrainian and Russian Donetsk is Донецьк. 

A strange fact about Donetsk Ukraine is that it was founded not by a Ukrainian or Russian but by a Welch businessman John Hughes! That was in 1869 and since then Donetsk has been a major steel producer. 

In Soviet times Donetsk was named Stalino (Сталино) after of course Stalin. Stalin of course means steel in Russian and Donetsk is a major steel producer so the name Stalino has duel meaning. In 1961 during a period of DE-Stalinization Donetsk received it modern name which was given to it by the local Donitsk river.

The city is dominated by Russian speakers and is more Russian language and historical oriented than Ukrainian. The city is a stronghold of the party of Regions. In 1989 there were not any Ukrainian language schools in Donetsk. 

Today Donetsk is famous for European football and super rich industrialists.

The climate of Donetsk is temperately continental, the average temperatures of January and July, the coldest and the warmest months of the year are accordingly: 19,2° F (-7,1°C) and 66,7° F (+18,7°С).

Local time in Donetsk Ukraine is 8 hours ahead of US East Coast time and 2 hours ahead of London.  So, if it is 12:00 noon US East coast it is 8:00 pm in Donetsk Ukraine. When it is 12:00 noon in London it is 2:00 pm in Donetsk Ukraine.