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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Recent Russian gains put Moscow's forces closer to jeopardizing one of Kyiv's main supply routes for its troops in eastern Ukraine, according to a new assessment, as Russia plugs on with small but steady gains on the eastern front in the war-torn country.
Russia's troops have likely seized Novooleksandrivka, a village just over 12 miles from the Moscow-held Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, the British Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
Controlling the settlement allows Russia to move "closer to threatening the T-05-04 road, one of the main supply routes for Ukrainian forces further east," the U.K. government evaluated.
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Russia claimed the former Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka, close to the Russian-controlled regional capital, Donetsk City, in February 2024. It was the most significant win for Russia in Donetsk since it captured Bakhmut, a Donetsk city northeast of Avdiivka, in May 2023.
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In the months since, Russia has been advancing west of Avdiivka, towards the strategic defensive city of Pokrovsk. Despite Russia opening up a new front in the northeastern Kharkiv region in early May, Ukraine has reportedly sustained, and often intensified, Russian attacks west of Avdiivka.
The T-05-04 highway links several Donetsk cities, including Pokrovsk, Kostyantynivka — and Bakhmut.
Ukrainian troops described the road in comments to The Washington Post as the "highway of life" for Kyiv's forces in Bakhmut, before Russia captured the settlement last year.
A spokesperson for Ukraine's 110th Mechanized Brigade told Ukrainian media on June 14 that reports Russia had captured Novooleksandrivka were "not true."
In an update at 1 p.m. local time on Tuesday (6 a.m. ET), Ukraine's armed forces said the area east of Pokrovsk had seen the "most fighting" since the start of the day.
Moscow attacked several settlements, including Novooleksandrivka, Novopokrovske— located south of the former—and Kalynove, to the east, Kyiv's armed forces said.
"The situation is under the control of our defenders," Ukraine said in a statement posted to social media.
DeepState, a popular Ukrainian war blog that tracks changes to the frontline, indicated in recent days that Russian forces had advanced close to Novooleksandrivka and Sokil, a village immediately to the south of the settlement. The U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Monday that geolocated footage indicated Russia now controlled Novopokrovske.
Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military for comment via email.
Russia's Defense Ministry did not reference Novooleksandrivka in its daily update on Tuesday, but said its forces had attacked Ukrainian positions in settlements to the northeast of Novooleksandrivka.
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