During the Euromaidan events, pro-Russian activists raised the Russian flag above the regional administration building and declared the Kharkiv People's Republic. The uprising was quelled in less than two days due to rapid reaction of the Ukrainian security forces under then Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Stepan Poltorak the then acting commander of the Ukrainian Internal Forces. In addition, a special forces unit from Vinnytsia was sent to the city to crush the separatists. The mayor of the city, Hennadiy Kernes, who supported the Orange Revolution but later joined the Party of Regions, decided to side with the Ukrainian government. Bombings occurred in 2006 and 2015; a family was decapitated in 2012. A fire in 2021 killed 15 people.