Kalanchak (Ukrainian: Каланчак) is a rural settlement in Skadovsk Raion, Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine.^[1] It hosts the administration of the Kalanchak settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.^[2] It has a population of 8,977 (2022 estimate).^[3]

Until 18 July, 2020, Kalanchak was the administrative center of Kalanchak Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Kherson Oblast to five. The area of Kalanchak Raion was merged into Skadovsk Raion.^[4][5]

Until 26 January 2024, Kalanchak was designated urban-type settlement. On this day, a new law entered into force which abolished this status, and Kalanchak became a rural settlement.^[6]

In the Middle Ages, there was a fortification referred to as kale-kucuk (small fortress in Crimean Tatar). The settlement was founded in 1794 as a home for exiled participants in the Turbai uprising.^[7] Kalanchak became the site of the first attack on Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Russian soldiers attacked an outpost in the town.^[8]

As of the 2001 Ukrainian census, Kalanchak had a population of 11,116 inhabitants, which was almost entirely ethnically Ukrainian. Small Russian, Armenian, Moldovan, Belarusian minorities also live in the town, as well as some Romani people. The native language composition was as follows:^[9]

Kalanchak railway station is located in Myrne approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of the settlement. It is on the railway which used to connect Kherson with Dzhankoi; however, after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the trains only run as far as Vadym, close to the border with Crimea. There is infrequent passenger traffic.

The settlement has access to Highway M17, which runs north to Kherson and south to the border with Crimea.

• Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast