Short answers, pulled from the story.
Donetsk was founded in 1869 by Welsh businessman John Hughes. He established a steel plant and coal mines near the Cossack settlement of Aleksandrovka, which had been mentioned as early as 1779 during the reign of Empress Catherine the Great.
The Soviet Union renamed the city Stalin in 1924 and changed it to Stalino three years later. The city finally settled on the name Donetsk in 1961 after these earlier designations.
During World War II, Nazi Germany occupied the city between October 1941 and September 1943, causing massive destruction to its infrastructure. After the war ended, the population dropped from over half a million to just 175,000 residents.
Donetsk hosted three Group D matches, one quarter-final, and one semi-final match during UEFA Euro 2012 at the Donbas Arena stadium opened in 2009. This venue was the first stadium in Eastern Europe designed to meet UEFA Elite category standards.
According to the 2001 census, Russians made up 48.15 percent of the population while Ukrainians comprised 46.65 percent. Russian was spoken by 87.8 percent of residents as their native language compared to just 11.1 percent for Ukrainian.