Lugansk is one of the regional centres of Ukraine. It is situated on the banks of the Luhan and the Vilkhova rivers.
The city is a large industrial centre. It is called the cradle of southern metallurgy.
Such branches of industry as machine building, locomotive building, coal-mining, light and food are well-developed there.
There are five higher educational establishments in the city.
There are also two theatres - the Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre and the puppet theatre - in Lugansk. Beside them there is the philharmonic society, a circus and different museums in it.
The most famous of them is the museum of V. I. Dal.
The place, where Lugansk is situated now, was inhabited in the first half of the 17th century.
In the 17th-18th centuries that territory was owned by the Don Cossacks Army.
Lugansk as a town was founded in 1795.
Nowadays it is a modern city with new districts, wide streets and marvellous parks.
