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Merefa (Ukrainian: Мeрeфa) is a city in Kharkiv Raion, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. Merefa hosts the administration of Merefa urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.[1] Population: 21,202 (2022 estimate).[2]
Merefa
Мерефа | |
---|---|
Church of the Nativity of Theotokos in Merefa | |
Coordinates: 49°49′N 36°03′E | |
Country | ![]() |
Oblast | Kharkiv Oblast |
Raion | Kharkiv Raion |
Hromada | Merefa urban hromada |
Population (2022) | |
• Total | 21,202 |
Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
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It was a village in Kharkovsky Uyezd of Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire.
City since 1938.[3]
In January 1989 the population was 28,952 people.[4][3] In 1992-1996, the Avangard football club of Merefa played in the national championship of Ukraine (third and second league in 1996/97) as a team that won the Kharkiv Oblast Football Championship (4 times in a row) and won prizes in transitional tournaments.
In January 2013 the population was 22,280 people.[5]
On March 17, 2022, at about 3:30 am, Russian servicemen shelled the town of Merefa, Kharkiv district, destroying a secondary school and a house of culture. 15 people were killed. 25 people were injured, 10 of them in serious condition.[6]
Etymologists have not reached a final conclusion, but it is believed that the name originated from the Old Slavic "mьrRs" (to fade), which is derived from the Ukrainian merekhtyty (to flicker; barely visible). Another version is a hydronymic from "merecha" (Ukrainian for forest thicket; dense shrubbery in a swampy lowland), which is based on the Proto-Slavic "merRja" (Ukrainian for swampy place).[7] Among the analogies is also merechytysia (to be seen), which is related to the root mereka ("delusion, ghost") derived from the Proto-Slavic morkъ (морок).[8]