Kholmsk is a port town located on the southwest coast of Sakhalin Island in Russia. It serves as the administrative center of the Kholmsky District within the Sakhalin Oblast. The city is situated on the coast of the Gulf of Nevelsky in the Strait of Tartary of the Sea of Japan, approximately 83 kilometers west of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
The town was known as Maoka until 1946. According to census data, its population has fluctuated over recent decades, recorded at 51,381 in the 1989 Soviet census, decreasing to 35,141 in 2002 and further to 30,937 by 2010.