Building on their momentum in eastern Ukraine, Russian forces have seized control of yet another small town, military experts say, taking another step in their grinding push to conquer the entire Donetsk region.

Battlefield maps from independent groups analyzing satellite images and combat footage show that the town, Velyka Novosilka, is now under Russian control, and the Kremlin claimed its capture on Sunday. Ukraine’s military acknowledged its withdrawal from most of the town but said that its troops maintained a foothold on the northern outskirts.

Although this gain is modest compared with Russia’s recent seizure of nearby Ukrainian strongholds like Vuhledar and Kurakhove, it underscores the effectiveness of a tactic that Moscow has been employing to take one town after another in eastern Ukraine: using its overwhelming personnel advantage to attack relentlessly, gradually trapping Ukrainian forces in a pincer movement and forcing them to retreat to avoid encirclement.

“From a tactical perspective, their approach was correct — they understood their capabilities and advantages and used them effectively,” Maj. Ivan Sekach, a press officer for the Ukrainian military’s 110th Brigade, which has been defending the area, said in an interview. “It would not be accurate to claim that the Russians don’t know how to fight.”

Major Sekach said that Ukrainian troops had been fighting with a river at their back that greatly complicated operations, adding that for the past two weeks, ammunition and food had to be delivered by drones.

“Troop reinforcements must cross the river, which is a very complex operation,” he said, noting that Russia was “of course aware of this.”

The town, at a road junction, is expected to improve Russia’s logistics in the region, experts say, though its small size limits its potential as a base for future offensives.

Fighting is also raging about 50 miles to the northeast in Toretsk, a strategic hilltop city that experts say has now largely fallen to Russian troops. Its capture would pave the way for Russia to advance on a series of cities that form Ukraine’s primary defensive belt in northern Donetsk.

In a sign of the challenges that Ukrainian troops are facing in the east, President Volodymyr Zelensky this week assigned Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, to personally take charge of the units fighting in the Donetsk region.

“These are the most intense areas of combat,” Mr. Zelensky said in a Sunday evening address.

The capture of Velyka Novosilka, which had a prewar population of 5,000, was largely enabled by the fall of Vuhledar in October. Perched on high ground about 20 miles to the east, Vuhledar was a linchpin of Ukraine’s southern Donetsk defenses. Its loss allowed Russian forces to quickly advance westward.

By mid-January, they had encircled Velyka Novosilka, seizing two settlements to its north and south and cutting off all roads into the town.

“There was no more sense in trying to hold on to the place,” said Pasi Paroinen, a military expert with the Finland-based Black Bird Group, which analyzes satellite imagery and social media content from the battlefield.

Still, using a familiar but contested tactic, Ukrainian forces held the town for another two weeks, drawing Russian troops into brutal urban combat in an attempt to inflict maximum losses before withdrawing.

Major Sekach said that in the fight for the town, Russia had launched relentless small-scale infantry assaults, sending groups of about five soldiers every hour who moved under the cover of tree lines, making them hard to detect and target with drones. Once they reached buildings, they took cover in basements.

“Our drones and artillery worked to eliminate them, but drones can’t fully destroy basements, and artillery often requires multiple attempts to hit the target accurately,” he said.

He added that countering Russia’s gradual takeover of buildings would have required sending in more troops from his units, but they lacked the personnel, with Russian troops in the town outnumbering Ukraine’s by as many as three to one.

Major Sekach said that Ukraine’s forces had managed to withdraw under the cover of fog, avoiding major casualties or surrender. But Mr. Paroinen cast doubt on that claim, noting that the troops would have had to cross a river without bridges and walk through at least a mile of open flood plains to escape.

“There was almost no way to withdraw from there,” he said, adding that it was possible that several hundred Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or captured in the process.

Mr. Paroinen said that he expected Russia’s forces now to push north toward a key highway supplying Ukrainian units in the area.

Daria Mitiuk contributed reporting.



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