New York, a town that once had a prewar population of 3,000, was home to many who worked at a Communist-era phenol plant known for its odorous emissions that permeated the town’s center. However, the plant has since been damaged, and the majority of the town’s residents have fled due to relentless shelling and the constantly shifting front lines.
A Ukrainian serviceman recently posted on Telegram, describing the chaotic situation in the town: “It almost doesn’t exist as such, because one building is ours, another is already under [Russian control], yet another one is ours again.” The confusion was echoed by Deep State, a Ukrainian Telegram channel that provides verified maps and data on the ongoing conflict, stating that “chaos reigns on both sides.”
Today, New York is a landscape scarred by explosion craters, damaged buildings with broken windows and roofs, and hastily dug graves. The town lies about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian defensive position now facing Russian advances.
Moscow claimed earlier this week that they had captured New York, but Kyiv insists that pockets of resistance remain, with Russian forces bypassing them as they move towards the larger town of Toretsk. Russia’s military leadership frequently announces the capture of Ukrainian towns even while they remain hotly contested for extended periods.
As fighting intensifies in eastern Ukraine, the spotlight has shifted to Kyiv’s unexpected offensive in the western Russian region of Kursk, overshadowing the dire situation in Donetsk. A prominent military expert has urged Kyiv to refocus its efforts to halt the Russian advance in the east, warning that it poses a significant threat to entire agglomerations. General Lieutenant Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces, emphasized the urgency of this threat in a statement to Al Jazeera.
In New York, the toll of the conflict is evident. A Russian mortar killed an elderly man in his backyard, prompting his grandson to post a plea on a Telegram chat for residents to photograph the grave in their garden. His message, sent at around 3 a.m. on Thursday, read, “Help me if you can. Thank you and may God save you all.” No one has yet responded.
Those who remain in New York are either too elderly or disabled to leave, or they prefer to stay under Russian control despite the destruction and death around them. According to a community leader, some residents have not yet grasped the reality of what Russia brings. Nadiya Gordiyuk, a teacher who fled the full-scale Russian invasion, remarked, “They still haven’t understood what Russia brings.”
The proximity of New York to separatist-controlled areas allows residents to access Russian TV and radio broadcasts, exposing them to Kremlin propaganda. Gordiyuk expressed frustration over this influence, noting that “Russian TV has done more damage to their minds than Russian shells to their homes.”
New York was briefly occupied by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014, but they were driven out after fierce street battles. Just a few kilometers away lies the rebel-held town of Horlivka, visible from a hilltop cemetery where monuments to World War II casualties still stand.
The battle for New York is part of Russia’s broader advance on the Toretsk agglomeration, a densely populated industrial area where Soviet-era plants coexist with coal mines. The natural flatness of the landscape is broken only by hills of spent ore.
New York is located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Bakhmut, a town captured in May 2023 by Russian mercenaries and pardoned prisoners fighting for the Wagner private military company. After a 10-month siege and the loss of tens of thousands of soldiers, Russian forces entered the devastated town in what analysts have called a Pyrrhic victory.
This destructive pattern is repeating across eastern Ukraine, where Russia has seized over 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) this year. Lesya Gabar, a native of Mykolaivka, which lies 70 kilometers (43 miles) north of New York and less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the front line, expressed her “worst fear” that her hometown might be the next to be reduced to rubble.
Like in New York, many elderly residents of Mykolaivka refuse to leave, even as the Russian forces advance. Gabar, who now lives in Kyiv but stays in contact with her family, noted that some pro-Russian residents feel emboldened by the Russian military’s progress, occasionally calling her to voice their opinions, even though her husband commands an air defense unit.
“They tell me I don’t understand, that all the [Ukrainian] oligarchs are to blame, that Ukraine is not a nation and never was,” Gabar said. “And the older generation keeps reminiscing about the USSR, as if everything was better then, and that [independent] Ukraine ruined it all.”
Alina, a university student in Slovyansk, a city 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Pokrovsk, described how the proximity of the front line affects every aspect of life. “When you go out to crowded places, you immediately think, ‘Is it safe to stand here now, or maybe something will hit?’” she told.
Slovyansk, where Russia-backed separatists launched their rebellion in April 2014, survived a three-month occupation. However, logistical challenges have driven up prices to three times the national average, and the influx of refugees from Russian-occupied areas has added to the strain.
Alina also encounters pro-Russian sentiment in her daily life but avoids engaging with such people, wary of potential confrontations. “You never know what they might do or how they might treat you,” she said.
Russia’s war has focused on eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s economic gains have been erased. The damage is immense, with two of Ukraine’s largest steel plants in Mariupol and dozens of smaller factories and foundries across the region destroyed, eliminating the backbone of Ukraine’s industrial output. As Kyiv-based analyst Aleksey Kushch summarized to Al Jazeera, the economic benefits of these occupied areas are “zero.”
