It was founded in 1908 when the Russian-Belgium Metallurgical Association founded Bunge mine to supply coal to Petrovskiy steelworks (now
Yenakiieve Iron and Steel Works). The name Bunhe or Bunge comes from the German surname
Bunge. In 1924, the
Yunkom coal mine was named "Yunkom" ("Yuny kommunar", ) and the settlement was named "Yunokomunarivsk". In 1965 it received urban-type settlement status. On 16 September 1979, in the mine "Yuny Communar" there was one of the
Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy—an object "
Klivazh". In 2002 the mine was closed as non-perspective and ecologists worried about the danger of filling the mine with water. It might cause radioactive pollution of the underground water, so pumps continue to pump water out of the abandoned mine. During the
war in Donbas the city was captured by the widely unrecognized
Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). On 21 September 2014
Ukrainian forces left Yunokomunarivsk. On 12 May 2016, the
Verkhovna Rada renamed Yunokomunarivsk back to its original name Bunhe ( or Бунґе) to conform to the
law prohibiting names of Communist origin. however they couldn't enforce it on the city since it was under separatist control. In 2018 the administration of the DPR decided to flood the
Yunkom coal mine. The drainage required maintenance of water pumps, which stopped along with the region's general infrastructure degradation after the Russian military occupation. The information was confirmed by OSCE Monitoring Mission. In April 2018 the DPR removed water pumps from the Yunkom mine, so it is gradually flooded by the natural waters. The radiological contamination was viewed as potentially spreading to the
Mius River and then to the
Azov Sea, threatening drinking and
irrigation water supplies. In 2023 the city as well as other parts of the DPR were
annexed by Russia after a
mostly unrecognized referendum. == Demographics ==