Zaporizhzhia is a city in south-eastern Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River, the capital of Zaporizhzhia Oblast [region]. The city is an important industrial centre, with Zaporizhstal, a huge steelworks and AvtoZAZ, a large car factory operating there. At the beginning of 2021, with a population of more than 722,000, Zaporizhzhia was Ukraine’s sixth most populated city.
Zaporizhzhia together with surrounding settlements forms Zaporizhzhia monocentric agglomeration.  It is one of the largest administrative, industrial and cultural centres of southern Ukraine, with advanced engineering, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, chemical and construction industries, a river port and an important transit railway junction.

 

During the Russian invasion in 2022 there was fighting in the southern parts of the city. On 3rd March the nuclear power plant came under shellfire from the Russian army, as a result of which a fire broke out. Russian troops started occupying the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station on the night of 3rd to 4th March. Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear utility of Ukraine, helped restore the internet connection between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the servers of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant. Russian troops now occupy most of the Zaporizhzhia region from the south, with almost 60 percent of the region's territory occupied by Russian forces. Residents of Enerhodar have no electricity, gas or water.