Ancient, medieval and early modern eras The city foundation date is uncertain. The territory where Khmelnytskyi is situated has been inhabited for a very long time. Many archaeological discoveries have been made in the city suburbs. For example, to the East of Lezneve district, there was a settlement from the
Bronze Age 2000 B.C., and from
Scythian times from 7–3 century B.C. The first mention of the city was written with Cyrillic alphabet. The earliest known mention in historical sources was in 1431, when it was known as
Płoskirów (
Ploskirov,
Плоскиров) and was part of the
Kingdom of Poland. It was a
royal city of Poland, administratively located in the
Podolian Voivodeship in the
Lesser Poland Province. In 1550 King
Sigismund II Augustus granted the town to
standard-bearer Maciej Włodek as a reward for his military service. In 1578, King
Stephen Bathory established weekly markets and three annual
fairs. Płoskirów became a
private town of the magnate
Zamoyski family. The recovery of the city was halted by Ottoman rule. After Poland regained the city, the Zamoyski family came back and brought Poles from
Mazovia to resettle the city, exempting the new inhabitants from taxes for the first few years. Nevertheless, local Poles retained their language and customs, including folk costumes inspired by the
Biłgoraj area. The Chief Otaman Petliura had been appointed head of state just two days prior to the tragedy, on February the 13th. Petliura issued Order 131 in which he mentioned the fact that numerous Jewish parties in Ukraine (
Bund,
Poale Zion,
Folks-Partei, Unificationists) rose to defend the sovereignty of the Ukrainian Republic and were cooperating with the Ukrainian government. He condemned such pogroms, calling those initiating them deserters and enemies of the State that must be liquidated. The order was co-signed by the Chief of Staff, Otaman Yunakiv. The order was published in the
Ukraina newspaper on February 20 (March 4, new style). Later, Petliura issued a special order to execute Semysenko for being the pogrom initiator. According to sources the order was carried out During the
Schwartzbard trial, at the end of which
Petliura's assassin was pardoned on the grounds of self-trail (
revenge), the main argument of the defense was that Schwartzbard had acted as an avenger of the Jews killed in pogroms perpetrated during Petliura's rule. During the
Polish–Soviet War, in the first half of 1920 the city was controlled by Poland as part of the
Podolian District, and afterwards it passed to
Soviet Ukraine.
Interwar period As part of
korenizatsiia, in 1924, a Polish village council was established in the then village of Hrechany (; now a district of the city), whose entire population was Polish. Hrechany was designed to become the capital of a new
Polish National District, however, the plan was abandoned by the Soviet authorities. During the
Polish Operation of the NKVD, the local Polish population was persecuted with mass deportations and executions. It was one of two cities in Podolia where the most Poles were executed (alongside Kamianets-Podilskyi).
World War II At the start of
World War II, on 11 September 1939, the Ukrainian Front of the
Red Army was formed shortly before the Soviet invasion on Poland, and its headquarters was located in Proskuriv. The town was occupied by the
German Army from July 8, 1941 A
ghetto was formed on December 14, 1941, where all surviving Jewish inhabitants had to resettle and were subjected to forced labor. They were subsequently killed in the fall of 1942. More than 9500 Jews were killed in the town in total. Some remaining local Poles were deported by the German occupiers to
forced labour in Germany. Since 1943, Poles, who were previously deported east from Proskuriv by the Soviets, were allowed to join the
Polish People's Army, and many joined. Until 18 July 2020, Khmelnytskyi was incorporated as a
city of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of Khmelnytskyi Raion though it did not belong to the raion. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Khmelnytskyi Oblast to three, the city of Khmelnytskyi was merged into Khmelnytskyi Raion.
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 10 October 2022, during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city was targeted by Russian cruise missiles as part of a major retaliation strike for the
Crimean Bridge explosion, causing a blackout in the city and limiting water supply. During a missile attack on 31 December, a gas station and a military facility inside the city was hit by two Russian cruise missiles, killing at least one civilian and wounding nine. The attack also caused a partial blackout and damaged more than a dozen cars and several residential buildings, including a
kindergarten. On 23 February 2023, Russian forces hit Khmelnytskyi with 3 Iranian-made
UAVs of the "Shahed type", killing one person and wounding four. Additionally, the attack caused a fire and damaged multiple buildings. ==Geography==