Mykolaiv (Миколаїв, mɪkoˈlɑjiu̯; Nikolayev) is a city and a municipality in southern Ukraine. Mykolaiv is the administrative center of Mykolaiv Oblast. The city of Mykolaiv, which provides Ukraine with access to the Black Sea, is the location of the most downriver bridge crossing of the Southern Bug river. This city is one of the main shipbuilding centers of the Black Sea. Aside from three shipyards within the city, there are a number of research centers specializing in shipbuilding such as the State Research and Design Shipbuilding Center, Zoria-Mashproekt and others. As of 2022, the city has a population of Mykolaiv holds the honorary title Hero City of Ukraine.
The city serves as a transportation hub for Ukraine, containing a sea port, commercial port, river port, highway, railway junction, and airport.
Much of Mykolaiv's land area consists of parks. Park Peremohy (Victory) is a large park on the peninsula just north of the city center of Mykolaiv, on the north side of the Inhul river.
The city is known under two names, which differ in Ukrainian and Russian; there are several transliterations of each name. The Ukrainian name of the city is Микола́їв, transliterated as Mykolaiv or (officially) Mykolayiv. The Russian name, Никола́ев, transliterates as Nikolaev or as Nikolayev.
The city's founding was made by the Russian conquests during the Second Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792. Founded by Prince Grigory Potemkin as Nikolaev, it was the last of the many cities he established. On 27 August 1789, Potemkin ordered its naming near the wharf at the mouth of the Ingul river, on a high, cool and breezy spot where the Ingul river meets the Southern Bug river. To build the city he brought in peasants, soldiers, and Turkish prisoners; 2,500 were working there during 1789. The shipyards were built first (1788).
Potemkin named the city after Saint Nicholas, the patron of seafarers, on whose day (6 December) he had obtained victory at the siege of Ochakov in 1788.