Russian troops have fully captured the town of Novgorodskoye, also known as New York – one of the largest settlements in the Toretsk agglomeration in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic – Moscow reported on Tuesday.
In an update on the Russian Defense Ministry’s official Telegram channel, it is reported that units of Russia’s Center group had eliminated “a large band of enemy troops” and liberated the strategically important logistics hub.
Kiev’s forces, according to Moscow, lost more than 585 servicemen, three tanks, two vehicles, a 155-mm US-made M777 howitzer, two 152-mm D-20 guns, and three 122-mm D-30 howitzers.
Before the ministry’s confirmation on Tuesday, the capture of the town was reported by RIA Novosti on Monday.
The capture of New York, which is part of Russia’s ongoing offensive in Donbass, opens a path towards the city of Toretsk, another major Ukrainian stronghold in the region and the center of the Toretsk agglomeration – a cluster of mostly industrial towns.
New York and Toretsk are both located less than two dozen kilometers from the Donbass city of Gorlovka, where Donetsk People’s Republic militias initially took up positions back in 2014.
Ukraine later turned the towns into part of a key defensive line, while Gorlovka was subjected to regular shelling in the years prior to the start of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in 2022. By mid-2017, the city had reported 235 civilian deaths linked to Ukrainian attacks.