Donets Basin

Highly industrialized area in Ukraine, situated in the bend formed by the rivers Don and Donets. The Donets Basin has one of Europe's richest coalfields, together with extensive deposits of salt, mercury, and lead.

The Donets Basin extends 620 km/385 mi east–west and 70–170 km/43–105 mi north–south and covers an area of over 60,000 sq km/23,166 sq mi. The area is vital to the industry of Ukraine, with its major thermal electric power stations, metallurgical, engineering, cement, and chemical works. A dense railway network links the principal industrial towns of Donetsk, Makeyevka, Lugansk, Gorlovka, Shakhty, and Kramatorsk. Coal was first discovered here in 1721 and mining began immediately, but rapid industrial development started after the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and the advent of the railway in 1869. This region has twice been devastated by war, during the Russian Civil War (1918–20) and World War II; on both occasions there followed intensive periods of restoration and further expansion.