The city of Donetsk is one of the biggest regional centers in Ukraine. It covers 381 square kilometers, with a population of 1,131,700.
The town was officially named "Donetsk" in 1869 replacing a former Cossack settlement. Both the growing number of coal mines and the establishment of the Novorossiyskaya Company with its metallurgical plant spurred the growth of Donetsk.

For a large industrial town, Donetsk is especially beautiful and very green. It is made up of 9 districts which are linked together by tram, trolley and bus routes. It also has well developed air and railway services. 386 food stores and 532 department stores serve the citizens and guests of Donetsk.
In Donetsk, 11 hotels provide accommodations for 2.5 million visitors per year.
The major industrial products from Donetsk are produced by the coal, metallurgy, food, machine-building, and metal working industries. These industries are made up of over 158 different companies employing about 168,000 people.

Donetsk is one of the largest cultural centers in Ukraine. There are 22 architectural monuments of local significance, about 200 monuments to sculpture and history, and many memorials as well. In the city are located and functioned a lot of various cultural establishments such as: 3 theatres, 53 palaces of culture, and clubs, a circus, 20 cinemas, a Regional Museum of Fine Arts, about 450 libraries (including school libraries), a regional Philharmonic Society, 140 museums and museum rooms (including a Regional Museum at a Local Lake), a Planetarium.

Art in Donetsk is a separate part in cultural life in the city as well as a subject of national proud. The world famous singers, Anatoly Solovolanenko and Jury Guljaev, the ballet dancers, Vadim Pisarev and lnna Dorofeeva, and trumpeter, Valeriy Kolesnikov, prize winner of many international jazz festivals and many other wonderful performers received their training as members of the troupe of the Donetsk State Academic Russian Opera and Ballet Theatre.

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