Russia Russian army captures location in Donbass
According to reports on both sides, Russian troops have occupied the small town of Velyka Novosilka in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military blog DeepState, which is close to the army, saw only one street on the outskirts of the town still in the hands of the defenders on its updated map. Russian military observers wrote on the blog Dwa Majora that the small rural town had been captured after a year of fighting.
26.01.2025, 14:02
SDA
"We succeeded in encircling enemy units, who asked their commanders for an order to retreat but did not receive it," the Russian side said. There was no Ukrainian confirmation of this. However, a Ukrainian army spokesman had also warned in the days before that the troops there were threatened with encirclement.
The military leaderships of both sides did not officially comment on the new situation. In the situation report for Sunday morning, the Ukrainian General Staff only wrote of fighting near Velyka Novosilka. The Russian Ministry of Defense in Moscow had reported a decisive breakthrough on Friday.
Velyka Novosilka was a small town with around 5,300 inhabitants before the war. It is the most south-western section of the front in the Donetsk region, close to the border with the Zaporizhzhya region. Russia has been at war with neighboring Ukraine for almost three years.
According to the Kiev General Staff, Ukraine attacked the large refinery in the Russian city of Ryazan with drones at night for the second time in a few days. Russian telegram channels quoted residents of the city south-east of Moscow who reported a series of explosions and fires.
