The ancient past of Donbas as a historical region of Ukraine is filled with fascinating and little-known pages. From the sixteenth century, the steppe lands of the Azov region between the Dnipro and Don rivers became an arena of confrontation among various peoples. However, in the second half of the seventeenth and throughout the eighteenth centuries, this frontier territory was increasingly settled by Ukrainian Cossacks. With both “the sword” and “the plow,” Ukrainians established settlements in the Wild Field, from which many towns, urban-type settlements, and villages of present-day Eastern Ukraine originated.