New York, liberated from Russian forces
While the Russian army claimed to have captured the town of New York in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces may have turned the tables.
On 20 August, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced in its daily report that ‘the Centre group (...) has liberated Novgorodskoye (Russian name for New York, editor's note), one of the largest towns in the Toretsk agglomeration and a strategically important logistics centre’. The town is said to be a major logistics hub for the Ukrainian armed forces.
Today, a Ukrainian brigade claims to have regained control of ‘part of the town’. This successful counter-attack also enabled Kiev to ‘unblock’ Ukrainian soldiers ‘surrounded by enemy forces’, the Azov brigade said on Telegram. A rare advance by the Ukrainian army in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine for months.
‘At present, the situation remains tense. The Russians are carrying out up to 15 assaults a day in the brigade's area of responsibility. Despite the fierce fighting, our soldiers are holding the line and successfully counter-attacking,’ stresses Azov.
A little background
In the 19th century, German settlers moved into the town of New York, which bore that name until 1951. That year, while the Cold War was raging the Soviet authorities decided to rename it ‘Novgorodskoye’, reports the Belgian media outlet La Libre. In the summer of 2021, the city once again became New York, as pressure from Ukrainian activists intensified.
(Fausto with Manon Pierre - Source: La Libre/RTBF - Illustration: Unsplash)