Mariupol (, ; ; , ; ) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Since May 2022, Mariupol has been occupied by Russian forces. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the tenth-largest city in the country and the second-largest city in Donetsk Oblast, with an estimated population of 425,681 people in January 2022, however Ukrainian authorities estimate its current population to be approximately 100,000. Historically, the city of Mariupol was a centre for trade and manufacturing, and played a key role in the development of higher education and many businesses while also serving as a coastal resort on the Sea of Azov. From 1948 to 1989, the city was known as Zhdanov, named after Andrei Zhdanov, a high-ranking official of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; the name was part of a larger effort to rename cities after high-ranking political figures in the Soviet Union. Mariupol was founded on the site of a former encampment for Cossacks, known as Kalmius, and was granted city rights within the Russian Empire in 1778. It played a key role in the Soviet-era industrialization of Ukraine; it was a centre for grain trade, metallurgy, and heavy engineering—including the Illich Iron and Steel Works and the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works. Beginning on 24 February 2022, the three-month-long siege of Mariupol by Russian forces largely destroyed the city, for which it was given the title "Hero City of Ukraine" by the Ukrainian government. On 16 May 2022, all Ukrainian troops who remained in Mariupol surrendered at Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, as the Russian military secured complete control over the city by 20 May 2022. History Ancient history Neolithic burial grounds excavated on the shore of the Sea of Azov date from the end of the third millennium BCE. Over 120 skeletons were discovered, with stone and bone instruments, beads, shell-work, and animal teeth. Crimean Khanate From the 12th through the 16th century, the area around Mariupol was largely devastated and depopulated by intense conflict between the Crimean Tatars, the Nogay Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Muscovy. By the middle of the 15th century much of the region north of the Black and Azov Seas was annexed by the Crimean Khanate and became a dependency of the Ottoman