INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia said on Tuesday its forces had taken control of what it described as the strategically important logistics hub of Niu-York in eastern
Ukraine, part of Moscow&s grinding drive to capture the entire Donetsk region, Reuters reported.Even as Ukrainian troops seek to advance in
Russia&s Kursk region after a surprise cross-border attack that began on Aug
6, the fate of Niu-York & which Reuters could not independently confirm & is a reminder that Russian forces are still pressing on with their
own offensive in eastern Ukraine.Russia separately announced the formation of new military groupings in Kursk and two other border regions
as it tries to repel the incursion without diverting forces from front lines deep inside Ukraine.Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said a new
coordinating body had &already& begun working round the clock to liaise between regional authorities, troop commanders and the defence
ministry, read the report.But the timing of his announcement & a full two weeks after Ukrainian forces smashed through Russia&s western
border & served to emphasise the delayed nature of Moscow&s response
He did not say why such smooth coordination had not been possible previously.Ukraine&s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Tuesday his
forces had pushed 28-35 km (17-22 miles) into Russia, capturing 1,263 sq km (488 square miles) of territory including 93 settlements &
figures that Reuters could not independently confirm
Russia has vowed to crush the incursion, but has shown no sign it is close to expelling Ukrainian forces.The operation has boosted Ukrainian
morale, and Kyiv believes the seizure of territory and Russian prisoners has strengthened its hand in any potential negotiation.But
independent military analysts say Kyiv has gambled by pulling some of its most effective combat units away from the defence of front lines
in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is continuing to advance, Reuters reported.The capture of Niu-York, if confirmed by Ukraine, would mark
another incremental success for Russia and would open the door to further possible strategically important gains
The town, whose name is pronounced like &New York&, has been devastated by heavy shelling and bombing by Russian forces who have used drones
to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions.With a pre-war population of just under 10,000, thousands of whom have since fled the
fighting, the town is on the railway line to Sloviansk, one of the cities in Donetsk which Moscow has long wanted to take.Donetsk is one of
four Ukrainian regions which Russia says it has annexed even though it does not fully control all of it, a territorial claim which Kyiv and
the West have rejected as illegal and one which Ukraine has vowed to reverse by force, read the report.Russian state TV correspondent
Yevgeny Poddubny, who this month survived a Ukrainian drone attack on a car he was travelling in, said control of Niu-York would allow
Russian forces to get closer to cutting off a key road & the Pokrovsk-Kostiantynivka highway & that keeps the Ukrainian army in the east
supplied.Alexander Kots, a war correspondent for the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily, said Russian forces would now also be able to attack the
eastern city of Toretsk & which is already under Russian pressure on its eastern flank & from the south.President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said
the situation near Pokrovsk and Toretsk was &difficult&.Ukraine&s General Staff said on Facebook that 14 combat clashes had been reported in
the Toretsk area and 34 in the Pokrovsk sector since the start of the day.There was no immediate confirmation by Ukraine that Niu-York was
Ukraine&s General Staff acknowledged Russian troops were attacking near Niu-York but said Ukrainian forces were giving them &a worthy
rebuff&.Ukrainian officials said Russia had also hit energy infrastructure in northern Ukraine in an overnight missile and drone attack and
caused a huge fire in the west of the country, resulting in increased chlorine levels in the air, Reuters reported.Separately, Russia said
it had summoned a senior U.S
diplomat in Moscow to protest over what it called the &provocative& actions of American journalists who had crossed into the Kursk region
from Ukraine to report on the incursion.The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had also protested over what it said was emerging evidence of
private military companies in the invasion of Russian territory by Ukraine
It did not say what evidence it was referring to.The post Russia says it advances in eastern Ukraine and regroups after incursion first
