Russia’s ‘dangerous advance’ in Ukraine’s east stokes fear, divisions

While world attention is on Kyiv’s surprise cross-border assault, Moscow’s troops are bearing down on Ukraine’s east.

Kyiv, Ukraine – There is heavy, ”chaotic” fighting in the eastern Ukrainian town of New York.

Its prewar population stood at 3,000, and many worked at the Communist-era phenol plant whose odorous exhaust once filled the town’s centre.

But the plant has been damaged. Most residents have fled heavy shelling and the ever-shifting front line.

“It almost doesn’t exist as such, because one building is ours, another is already under [Russians], yet another one is ours again,” a Ukrainian serviceman wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.

“There’s chaos on both sides,” according to Deep State, a Ukrainian Telegram channel that publishes verified maps of hostilities and data on losses on both sides.