Preceding settlements Archeologists have discovered human settlements on the territory of modern Siversk dating back to the
Stone Age. At different times throughout history, the area has been inhabited by
Sarmatians,
Goths,
Huns,
Avars,
Alans,
Bulgarians,
Slavs,
Khazars and
Cumans. The land was conquered by the
Mongol Empire during the
Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' in the mid-13th century. In the 16th century, the land on the banks of the
Siversky Donets river was colonized by the
Zaporizhzhian Cossacks. They made several small settlements, including one named
Shokovy Yar. Shovkovy Yar would go on to evolve into the villages of Chornohorivka and
Stary Mlyn. After the
liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich in the late 18th century,
Catherine the Great began a program by which large numbers of
Eastern Orthodox residents of the
Ottoman Empire and the
Austrian Empire were resettled in the
Donbas region. This colony was known as
Slavo-Serbia. Stary Mlyn became the property of nobleman
Rajko Preradović, and the settlement was named
Radivonivka after him. This name later evolved into another name,
Rodionivka. On 27 January 1950, most of the disparate minor settlements - including Rodionivka and Chornohorivka - were merged into Yama. The worker's settlement near the dolomite mine was excluded from this, instead becoming the settlement
Dolomitne. Yama was part of until 10 September 1959, when the raion was abolished, and its territory, including Yama, was merged into Artemivsk Raion. Yama received city status in 1961, and was renamed to Siversk on 2 August 1973. In 1980, a museum was opened about Volodymyr Sosiura, the poet who had visited the area. Ukrainian forces approached the city and began to encircle it, forcing the separatists to flee. Despite the end of actual fighting in the city itself, the trend of economic and population decline accelerated, As of 2016, Siversk was located about from the frontline. Siversk itself fell into humanitarian crisis, with running water and electricity services being shut down and most buildings damaged. 70% of buildings in the city were reportedly in "ruins". After Ukraine's
2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive, a
United States military official said on 12 September that Russia was moving its focus from Siversk to the
battle of Bakhmut. On 28 June 2023, Siversk officially launched a
sister city program with
Weston, Connecticut. Siversk had not recovered from the war damage, with only about 1,000 residents remaining in the city as of July 2023. Further advances on the south-western outskirts of the Serebriansky forest and its capture along adjacent
village meant that the route connecting Siversk with
Lyman came under Russian fire control. On 11 December 2025, Russia's Chief of the General Staff
Valery Gerasimov said that Russian forces had captured Siversk. The Ukrainian army's eastern command denied Russian claims. The
Institute for the Study of War reported that Russian forces likely seized the city by 21 December after 41 months of fighting, citing a Ukrainian military observer. On 23 December, Russian seizure of the city was confirmed by the General Staff of
AFU. Siversk is considered strategically important because it is part of a defence line protecting the last major urban area in Donbass controlled by Ukrainian forces, the capture of which enables Russian advances further towards the cities of
Sloviansk and
Kramatorsk. ==Economy==