Liski was founded as
Novaya Pokrovka () in 1571. The town later merged with the local train station, Liski, in 1928. It was renamed
Svoboda () in 1943, and later renamed as Liski. It was renamed
Georgiu-Dezh () in 1965 after the first
Romanian communist leader,
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, before returning to Liski again in 1990.
Russian invasion of Ukraine 's
FIRMS detected extensive fire at a Liski fuel depot on 19 January 2025 23:09:00 (
UTC) On 16 January 2025, during the
Russo-Ukrainian War, the
General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed to have struck an oil depot located in the town with at least 3 drones. On January 20 the oil depot was struck by drones again, causing an extensive fire detected by
NASA's
FIRMS. ==Administrative and municipal status==