Russian forces advance on town named after New York

The Telegraph:  Russian forces have advanced into the southwestern suburbs of New York, a town in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

Ukrainian and Russian sources said that Moscow’s forces have taken up positions on Petrovskyi Street, which is roughly half a mile from the centre of the town.

Ukraine’s general staff confirmed that fighting had taken place within New York, also known as Niu York, in its mid-afternoon situational report.

On Saturday, Ukrainian media reported that soldiers in the area were complaining of a lack of mechanised support, and that that had led to Russian advances into the town.

The attack is understood to be part of a larger Russian offensive aimed at capturing the coal-mining city of Toretsk, which is around six miles north of New York.

Toretsk is also facing a Russian assault from the east, where the Ukrainian military has confirmed that fighting is ongoing in the city’s outskirts.

Russia continues to make incremental gains across the front. On July 4, Ukraine’s army confirmed it had retreated from a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a strategically important town in eastern Donetsk.

New York was established by German Mennonite settlers in 1892. It is said to have taken its name from the birthplace of a wife of one of the founders: New York City, USA.

The town was known as Novgorodske from 1951-2021, but changed its name in a bid to distance itself from the Soviet era.