A Ukrainian official on Aug. 6 denied that Russia fully captured the village of Niu-York in Donetsk Oblast, saying that "heavy fighting continues" there.
The front-line settlement of Niu-York lies just south of Toretsk, a town that has become one of the focal points of the Russian offensive in Donetsk Oblast.
Russian forces appear to have established a presence in the village. Earlier on Aug. 6, footage of what appears to be a soldier raising a Russian flag on top of a building in Niu-York emerged on social media.
The Ukrainian DeepState monitoring service geolocated the building as the Boarding School Number 38, located in the northwestern part of the village. The channel presented it as a signal of a "deteriorating tactical situation in the settlement and its loss in the near future."
Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov claimed the flag's footage as evidence that Niu-York fell to Russian hands. This was promptly denied by Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation department at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council.
"As of now, Niu-York has not been taken by Russia. Heavy fighting continues there," Kovalenko said on Telegram.
DeepState's map points to steady Russian advances in the village but indicates certain parts are still held by Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify all the claims.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think-tank said on Aug. 5 that Russia had made "significant tactical advances in the Toretsk direction," pointing to geolocated footage of Russian forces in Druzhba east of Toretsk.
Russia also continues to press against other Donetsk Oblast towns, namely Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk.
Francis Farrell
