Shostka  Shostka () is a city in Sumy Oblast in the north-east of Ukraine. Shostka serves as the administrative center of Shostka Raion. It is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast significance and does not belong to the raion. Population:   The town lies on the Shostka River, a tributary of the Desna, from which it gets its name. Shostka is an important centre of industry: in chemicals (see Svema) and in dairy, the Shostka City Milk Plant was recently acquired by the Bel Group. Shostka started out as a village at the beginning of the 17th century for Ukrainian Cossacks which were based there. In 1739, a gunpowder factory was built there. Since that time Shostka was one of the most important gunpowder suppliers in the Russian Empire. In 1893, a branch of a nearby railroad line was built. Shostka was granted municipal rights in 1920. In 1931, a film factory was built in Shostka which was one of the main suppliers of cinema and photo film in the USSR. Shostka's population: 1926 - 8,600 inhabitants, 1959 - 39,000 inhabitants, 1970 - 64,000 inhabitants, 1979 - 80,000 inhabitants, 1984 - 84,000 inhabitants  Shostka is home to the Ukrainian football team Impuls Shostka. The city is the birthplace of Lightweight Boxer Ivan Redkach. Shostka is the hometown of the fictional Mousekewitz family in the 1986 animated film "An American Tail", the opening of which depicts a Cossack raid on the town. Although set in a time period when Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, the film's claim in text that Shostka is based in Russia, rather than Ukraine, is inaccurate.