Russian forces announced on Tuesday that they had taken control of the crucial hub of New York in eastern Ukraine, as Moscow continues its offensive despite facing a counterattack from Kyiv on its territory. The defence ministry stated that its troops had seized "one of the largest settlements of the Toretsk agglomeration and the strategically significant logistics hub (of) Novgorodskoye", referring to the town in Ukraine's Donetsk region by its former name.
The capture of the town, which had a population of approximately 10,000 before Moscow initiated its offensive, marks another Russian advance in the region. On Monday, Russia declared it had captured the town of Zalizne, near New York. Donetsk, one of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claimed to have annexed in 2022 despite not fully controlling any of them, has witnessed the most intense fighting during the two-and-a-half-year conflict.
Kyiv has faced difficulties in maintaining the front line in Donetsk due to manpower and ammunition shortages following months of attritional combat. Ukraine attempted to alleviate pressure in other parts of the battlefield by launching a border incursion into Russia's western Kursk region two weeks ago. However, the Russian advance in Donetsk has persisted.
New York first became a frontline town in 2014 when Moscow-backed separatists in the east sought to secede from Kyiv, sparking an armed conflict. The origin of the town's name remains uncertain, with theories suggesting possible American connections among its founders. It was renamed "Novgorodskoye" by Soviet authorities in 1951 for ideological reasons, and Ukrainian lawmakers later voted to revert it back to New York in 2021.
