Donetsk region covers an area of 26,500 km² and includes 66 territorial communities. The region has been the scene of fighting since 2014, when the War for Independence of Ukraine began. At that time, the population of Donetsk region was 4.1 million people (9.9 percent of the population of Ukraine). As a result of active fighting and mandatory evacuation of the population, the estimated number of people actually living in Donetsk region as of 01.01.2026 is 208,000 people. The region is rich in significant natural resources: 750 deposits of 36 types of minerals (coal, iron, lithium, salt, etc.) and fertile black soils of 60 soil classes. Since February 24, 2022, as a result of full-scale Russian aggression, the Donetsk region has suffered devastating losses in all spheres of life and the economy of the region - the outflow of the working-age population to safer regions and abroad, the relocation of enterprises, numerous damage and destruction of industrial sector and housing facilities, losses of land, losses in agriculture, the cessation of the work of leading budget-forming enterprises, a significant reduction in exports, and irreparable damage to the natural environment. The economy of the Donetsk region before the full-scale invasion was traditionally characterized by a high degree of industrialization. In recent years, the economic structure has changed: its basis is now agriculture, the remnants of industry, and critical infrastructure. The production capacities of many enterprises were damaged during the hostilities, leading industrial enterprises, such as PJSC Mariupol Ilyich Metallurgical Plant, PJSC Azovstal Metallurgical Plant, PJSC Avdiivka Coke Plant, found themselves in temporarily occupied territories. The number of displaced enterprises at the beginning of 2026 is 9.9 thousand units, including 2.3 thousand legal entities, 7.6 thousand individual entrepreneurs (FOPs). The priority issues today are ensuring the stability of the region under martial law; increasing defense capabilities and the ability to protect the population and territory from military emergencies; ensuring the availability of basic social, medical, educational, administrative, and cultural services, taking into account the security situation in the region and beyond; supporting vulnerable segments of the population; creating conditions for stabilizing and further restoring the regional economy. However, despite the challenges, the region continues to achieve economic indicators, and the enterprises of the Donetsk region continue to work even in such extremely difficult and dangerous conditions. Coal production for January-November 2025 amounted to 774.1 thousand tons, the volume of gross agricultural output in all categories of farms in 2025 was obtained at the level of 4.0 billion UAH. In the livestock sector last year, 3 enterprises and 4 individual entrepreneurs worked, 12 enterprises of the food and processing industry are conducting limited economic activities. In 2025, taxpayers of the Donetsk region transferred 18.3 billion UAH to the Consolidated Budget of the country. Foreign trade turnover for 9 months of 2025 amounted to 32.5 million USD (exports - 15.3 million USD, imports - 17.2 million USD).
Since August 2022, in accordance with the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated August 2, 2022 No. 679-r, mandatory evacuation of the population of the Donetsk region has been carried out.