Yuzhnoukrainsk was founded in 1976. It is one of the youngest Ukrainian towns.[citation needed] It received city status and the name Yuzhnoukrainsk on 2 April 1987.[3]
Until 18 July 2020, Yuzhnoukrainsk was incorporated as a city of oblast significance. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Mykolaiv Oblast to four, the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk was merged into Voznesensk Raion.[4][5]
In May 2022, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began that year, many Ukrainian cities began removing Russian-derived toponymy. After deliberations, the city council of Yuzhnoukrainsk decided that the city's name did not conform to state language standards. This is because the city's name contains the Russian-language prefix yuzhny (южный), which means "south". A natively Ukrainian version of this name would be Pivdennoukrainsk (Південноукраїнськ).[6] In March 2023, the Ukrainian law "On the Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and the Decolonization of Toponymy" was passed, which provides for the derussification of Ukrainian toponymy. Among other elements, the law listed Yuzhnoukrainsk as an example of "geographical features with Russified names" that would need to be either brought in line with Ukrainian spelling, or have a historical name returned.[7] On 4 September 2023, voting began on choosing a new name. The naming commission provided three names to choose from: Buhohard (Бугогард), Hard (Гард), and Pivdennoukrainsk (Південноукраїнськ).[8] Pivdennoukrainsk won with 3,071 votes, followed by Hard at 672 votes and Buhohard at 56 votes.[9]
South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, also known as Yuzhnoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant, is on the opposite shore of the hydroelectric reservoir from the city. The power plant has three VVER-1000 reactors and a net capacity of 2,850 megawatts (MW). It is the second largest of the five nuclear power plants in the country. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the nuclear power plant was close to being hit by Russian cruise missiles.[10]
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