Donbas Area The Donbas, also called the Donets Basin, is an about 60,000 square km (23,170 square miles) that contains one of the largest coal deposits in the world. Straddling the Ukraine-Russia border with two-thirds of it lying on the Ukrainian side, this vital fuel source and industrial region is heavily Russified. Donetsk (Донецьк) population 1,065 million, is the regional center and the primary city of the Donbas urban cluster. After its founding in 1869, it grew rapidly when Welshman John Hughes built factories and mining complexes based on the local coal supply. Today it's the largest center of coal mining and metallurgy in Ukraine with hundreds of industrial enterprises, primarily machine-building and chemicals. On its outskirts, the city doesn't seem very enticing, with the huge pyramids of coal that surround it, but Donetsk is surprisingly one of the greenest cities in Ukraine with many thousands of acres of park land and gardens, criss-crossed by wide tree-lined boulevards. Near the city center is a 280-hectare (692-acre) Botanical Garden, near the city center. A major center of learning and culture, Donetsk has five institutions of higher learning, and several dozen specialized secondary schools. The main street, Artem Street (вулиця Артема, vulytsya Artemd), is five miles long and contains the city's main administrative and cultural buildings. Performing arts in Donetsk include the Opera and Ballet Theater, 72 Artem Street; Ukrainian Theater of Music and Drama, 74-a Artem Street; Puppet Theater, 18 Illich Avenue (проспект Ілліча, prospekt Illicha); Philharmonic, 117 Postyshev Street (вулиця Постишева, vulytsya Postysheva), and a circus. The Donetsk State Museum of Fine Arts, at 35 Pushkin Boulevard, exhibits 18th to 19th century landscapes and portraits by Russian and Western European artists.