Hrabove, Donetsk Oblast

The village was founded in the late fifteenth century[4] on the left bank of Mius River; it was repositioned to its present site in 1787.

A stone church, the Holy Trinity Church, was built in 1803. Its basic form survives to this day, though it was substantially rebuilt in 1903.

Hrabove became part of the newly emerging Soviet Union in February 1918[4] under a revolutionary leader called Nestor Makhno. A more stable communist based regime was in place from 1921.

In 1942 the area fell under German control: Christian (Orthodox) worship was again permitted and there was a partial restitution of lands that had been confiscated from the farmers under the communist regime. However, in 1952 the church was closed by the (now, once again, Communist) authorities and the church was converted into a dance hall. The authorities then moved to destroy the church, but local people successfully prevented its complete destruction.

The village came to international attention as it became the site of much of the debris from the destruction of the aircraft for Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down in the region on 17 July 2014, killing all 298 on board.[5] At the time, Hrabove was in the conflict zone of the War in Donbass, in an area controlled by separatists.

Since 2010 the head of the village council has been Volodymyr Berezhnyi (born 1955).

The 2001 census indicated a population of 1,000 people, categorized according to preferred mother tongue as 77.5% Ukrainian speaking and 22.0% Russian speaking, with a handful of Belarusian speakers.[6] Most people living in the village identify as Ukrainian.