Mukachevo is a city located in the valley of the Latorica river in Zakarpattia Oblast, in Western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Mukachevo Raion, the city itself does not belong to the raion and is designated as a city of oblast significance, with the status equal to that of a separate raion. It lies close to the borders of four neighbouring countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Today, the population is 85,903.
The city is now a rail terminus and highway junction, and has beer, wine, tobacco, food, textile, timber, and furniture industries. During the Cold War, it was home to Mukachevo air base and a radar station.
Mukachevo is a traditional stronghold of the Rusyn language, and the population of Mukachevo is officially reported as 77.1% ethnic Ukrainian. There are also significant minorities of: Russians; Hungarians; Germans; and Romanians.
Up until World War II and the Holocaust, it was primarily a Jewish town, and half the population was Jewish, the rest of the population being Russians, Hungarian, Slovak, and other minorities. Formerly in Czechoslovakia, and before that in Hungary, it was incorporated into Soviet Ukraine after World War II.