Enerhodar was founded on 12 June 1970 to build and serve the Zaporizhzhia thermal power station. For two years, the town had no name. Zaporizhzhia TPP was under construction, and the city grew. On 23 November 1972, the village of power engineers was named Enerhodar.
The complex development of Enerhodar was combined with the high rate of construction of the thermal power plant. Residential areas, kindergartens, the Energodar Hotel, and the Palace of Culture "Sovremennik" were built simultaneously with the plant's units. Zaporizhzhia Thermal Power Plant reached full capacity in September 1977.
On 28 February 2022, Russia claimed to have captured the city and the nuclear power plant. The mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, denied the claim.[6]
Civilians built a large barricade of sandbags and vehicles on the road to the nuclear power plant in an attempt to hinder Russian troop advancement.[7] The Ukrainian military administration for the southeast confirmed on 7 March that Enerhodar had been occupied by Russian forces.[8]
Demographics
As of the Ukrainian national census in 2001, Enerhodar had a population of 56,180 inhabitants, making it the fourth-largest city in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast. In terms of ethnicity, Ukrainians make up a solid majority in the city, followed by a large minority of ethnic Russians. Small Belarusian, Bulgarian and Armenian communities also exist in Enerhodar. When being asked about their native language, roughly 62% of the population stated that they primarily spoke Russian, while almost 38% spoke Ukrainian. The exact ethnic and linguistic composition was as follows:[9][10]
