| Official Name: | Kovel |
| Native Name: | Ukrainian: Ковель |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | Oblast |
| Subdivision Name1: | Volyn Oblast |
| Subdivision Type2: | Raion |
| Subdivision Name2: | Kovel Raion |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Ihor Chayka[1] |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Established Date: | 13th century |
| Established Title2: | Magdeburg law |
| Established Date2: | 1518 |
| Area Total Km2: | 47.3 |
| Population As Of: | 2022 |
| Population Total: | 67575 |
| Population Density Km2: | 1400 |
| Timezone: | EET |
| Utc Offset: | +2 |
| Timezone Dst: | EEST |
| Utc Offset Dst: | +3 |
| Pushpin Map: | Ukraine Volyn Oblast#Ukraine |
| Coordinates: | 51.2167°N 24.7167°W |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 45000 |
| Area Code: | +380 3352 |
| Website: | (in Ukrainian) |
| Subdivision Type3: | Hromada |
| Subdivision Name3: | Kovel urban hromada |
Kovel (pronounced as /uk/; pl|Kowel; yi|קאוולע / קאוולי) is a city in Volyn Oblast, northwestern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Kovel Raion within the oblast. Population:
Kovel gives its name to one of the oldest runic inscriptions which were lost during World War II. The Kovel spearhead, unearthed near the town in 1858, contained text in Gothic.[2]
The name Kovel comes from a Slavonic word for blacksmith hence the horseshoe on the town's coat of arms. The rune-inscribed Spearhead of Kovel was found near Kovel in 1858. It dates to the early 3rd century, when Gothic tribes lived in the area.
Kovel (Kowel) was first mentioned in 1310.[3] It received its town charter from the Polish King Sigismund I the Old in 1518.[3] In 1547 the owner of Kowel became Bona Sforza, Polish queen.[3] In 1564 starost of Kowel became Kurbski (d. 1584).[3] From 1566 to 1795 it was part of the Volhynian Voivodeship. Kowel was a royal city of Poland. In 1792 the 3rd Polish Vanguard Regiment was garrisoned in Kowel, and later on also the 2nd Polish National Cavalry Brigade was stationed there.[4]
After the Third Partition of Poland, in 1795, the town fell into the Russian Empire for over a hundred years. During the First World War, the city was a site of the Battle of Kowel between the Central Powers and the Russian Empire.
During the Polish–Soviet War, on September 12, 1920, it was the site of a battle between the Poles and Russians.[5] The Poles won the battle, capturing a large amount of weapons and military equipment, including two armored trains and 26 cannons.[5] In the interwar period, Kowel served as the capital of Kowel County in Wołyń Voivodeship of the Polish Republic. It was an important garrison of the Polish Army, here the headquarters of the 27th Volhynian Infantry Division was located. Furthermore, at the village of Czerkasy, a large depot of the Polish Army was located. In 1924, construction of the St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Roman Catholic church began.
In World War II, following the joint Nazi German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Kovel was occupied by the Soviet Union and had a large number of Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland. The area had a large presence of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, and thus the Red Army was generally greeted as liberators.[6] Subsequently, in 1941 Operation Barbarossa the Germans having conquered the town on 28 June 1941 murdered 18,000 Jews in Kovel, mostly during August and September 1942. The Germans operated the Stalag 301 POW camp, a subcamp of the Stalag 360 POW camp and a Dulag transit POW camp in the town.[7]
About 8,000 Jews were murdered in the forest near Bakhiv on 19 August 1942 during the liquidation of the Kovel ghetto, established on 25 May 1942. Jewish victims were driven by train from Kovel to Bakhiv where pits were dug close to the railroads. Actually there were two ghettos, one within the city and another in the suburbs of Pyaski. Both ghettos had 24,000 Jews, including many refugees. The Jews from both ghettos were executed at different places and at different time. The Jewish community ceased to exist.[8] [9]
In March and April 1944 during the Soviet Polesskoe offensive, Kovel was a site of fierce fighting between the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking and the Red Army.
During the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, the town was a shelter for ethnic Poles, escaping the massacres. In that period, Ukrainian nationalists murdered approximately 3,700 Polish inhabitants of Kovel county. In early spring 1944, the 27th Infantry Division of the Home Army operated in the area. Kovel was captured by the Red Army on 6 July 1944. In 1945, the Big Three, Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, established new borders for Poland; the Polish population was forcibly resettled and Kovel was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It has been a part of sovereign Ukraine since 1991.
Kovel is the north-western hub of the Ukrainian rail system, with six rail lines radiating outward from the city. The first of these was built in 1873, connecting the city with Brest-Litovsk and Rivne. In 1877 Kovel was linked by the Vistula River Railroad with Lublin and Warsaw.
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Ukraine. Kovel is twinned with:[10]
Chamblee, United States[11]
Baboszewo, Poland Brzeg Dolny, Poland
Bucha, Ukraine Chełm, Poland Łęczna, Poland Legionowo, Poland Nikolske, Ukraine
Shchuchyn, Belarus Smila, Ukraine Szczuczyn, Poland
Utena, Lithuania