Building on their momentum in eastern Ukraine, Russian forces have seized control of yet another small town, military experts say, taking another step in their grinding push to conquer the entire Donetsk region.
Battlefield maps from independent groups analyzing satellite images and combat footage show that the town, Velyka Novosilka, is now under Russian control, and the Kremlin claimed its capture on Sunday. Ukraine’s military acknowledged its withdrawal from most of the town but said that its troops maintained a foothold on the northern outskirts.
Although this gain is modest compared with Russia’s recent seizure of nearby Ukrainian strongholds like Vuhledar and Kurakhove, it underscores the effectiveness of a tactic that Moscow has been employing to take one town after another in eastern Ukraine: using its overwhelming personnel advantage to attack relentlessly, gradually trapping Ukrainian forces in a pincer movement and forcing them to retreat to avoid encirclement.
“From a tactical perspective, their approach was correct — they understood their capabilities and advantages and used them effectively,” Maj. Ivan Sekach, a press officer for the Ukrainian military’s 110th Brigade, which has been defending the area, said in an interview. “It would not be accurate to claim that the Russians don’t know how to fight.”
Major Sekach said that Ukrainian troops had been fighting with a river at their back that greatly complicated operations, adding that for the past two weeks, ammunition and food had to be delivered by drones.
“Troop reinforcements must cross the river, which is a very complex operation,” he said, noting that Russia was “of course aware of this”.
The town, at a road junction, is expected to improve Russia’s logistics in the region, experts say, though its small size limits its potential as a base for future offensives.
Fighting is also raging about 80 km to the northeast in Toretsk, a strategic hilltop city that experts say has now largely fallen to Russian troops. Its capture would pave the way for Russia to advance on a series of cities that form Ukraine’s primary defensive belt in northern Donetsk.
In a sign of the challenges that Ukrainian troops are facing in the east, President Volodymyr Zelensky this week assigned Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, to personally take charge of the units fighting in the Donetsk region.
“These are the most intense areas of combat,” Zelensky said in a Sunday evening address.
The capture of Velyka Novosilka, which had a prewar population of 5,000, was largely enabled by the fall of Vuhledar in October.
New York Times News Service