Interesting and fun quiz, just two requests but could you please accept "Zaporizhzhia" as well - it is "Запоріжжя" in Ukrainian which threw me off a bit. Also think Samarkand is bigger than Namangan.
According to citypopulation.de, Namangan has around 661k people while Samarkand has around 561k people, and yes I will add Zaporizhzhia as a correct answer, thank you!