On June 18, 2014, the Ukrainian female army aviator Nadiya Savchenko was captured near the village of Metalist by rebels of the Donbass People's Militia, an armed pro-Russian militant group that declared allegiance to the self-declared People's Republic of Luhansk.[3] Savchenko was later handed over to Russia, charged and convicted for the killing of two Russian journalists during the 2014 insurgency in Donbass (she was released in a prison swap in May 2016).[4][5] On July 2, 2014, heavy fighting was reported in and near here.