The Russian Air Force has bombed New York, a village in the portion of the Donetsk People’s Republic under Ukrainian control, several Telegram channels tracking the conflict reported on Wednesday. The Russian Defense Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied the strike.
New York is located on the front line, west of Gorlovka and north of the city of Donetsk, between the flashpoints of Artyomovsk (known in Ukraine as Bakhmut) and Avdeevka.
The 132nd Gorlovka Brigade reportedly tracked a Ukrainian ‘Baba Yaga’ bomber drone to an outpost near the hamlet, at which point they called in an airstrike. Russian bombers then hit the facility with heavy glide bombs.
A video shared on social media on Wednesday shows the initial blast followed by a shockwave and a secondary explosion, suggesting that the base was not just a command post but an ammunition warehouse as well.
Over the past year, the Russian Air Force has used glide modification kits to extend the range of FAB gravity bombs, enabling their use against Ukrainian ground forces without putting pilots at risk of air defenses.
Wednesday’s strike came amid heavy bombardment of the remaining Ukrainian positions in Avdeevka, which is south of New York, as Russian forces continue to advance in the city.
Founded in 1859 by a group of Mennonite Protestants from Germany, the hamlet was named New York. It was renamed Novgorodskoe during Soviet times, but the Ukrainian authorities restored the old name in mid-2021.
During the summer of 2014, it was briefly under the control of the Donetsk People’s Republic, which had declared independence from Ukraine following the US-backed coup in Kiev. The republic eventually joined Russia following a referendum in September 2022.