Founded as the village of
Shevelivka in 1656, later it was renamed Velykyi Burluk. It was a village in Volchansk
uyezd of the
Sloboda Ukraine. A local newspaper has been published here since August 1931. During
World War II, it was under German occupation from June 1942 to February 1943. It has been an
urban-type settlement since 1963. In January 1989 the population was 5,224 people. In January 2013 the population was 4,053 people. Until 18 July 2020, Velykyi Burluk was the administrative center of
Velykyi Burluk Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Kharkiv Oblast to seven. The area of Velykyi Burluk Raion was merged into
Kupiansk Raion.
Russo-Ukrainian War The town was
occupied by the
Russian military on 24 February 2022, the first day of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to local residents, bombardment of the area began at 05:00, and the first Russian tanks entered the town around 08:00. There was no attempt to defend the town, and there were no Ukrainian forces in the area at the time of the invasion. In July 2022, the pro-Russian leader of the area was reportedly killed by a car bomb by Ukrainian partisans. On 11 September 2022, the town was retaken by Ukrainian forces during the
autumn counteroffensive. On 2026, drone strike destroyed a local architectural monument, manor of Donets-Zakharzhevsky family (1835). Until 26 January 2024, Velykyi Burluk was designated
urban-type settlement. On this day, a new law entered into force which abolished this status, and Velykyi Burluk became a rural settlement. ==Climate==