Ukrainian forces regain control of Novyi Komar village in Donetsk Oblast

Ukrainian troops have driven Russian units out of Novyi Komar village in Donetsk Oblast, Nazar Voloshyn, the spokesperson for the Khortytsia group of forces, told Suspilne media on Dec. 5.

Novyi Komar, a village with a pre-war population of less than 500 people, is located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of the Russian-occupied town of Vuhledar.

"The enemy was driven out of there," Voloshyn said. "The village of Novyi Komar is under the control of the (Ukrainian) Defense Forces."

A day before, crowd-sourced monitoring website DeepState reported that soldiers of the 48th Separate Assault Battalion regained control of the village. Russian forces suffered heavy losses, and some Russian soldiers fled to the highway near the village, according to DeepState.

At the same time, Ukraine's counteroffensive actions are not as significant as Russia's ongoing assaults in the country's east. Russia captured 234.79 square kilometers (90 square miles) in one week in mid-November, which is the highest number in 2024, according to the independent Russian outlet Agentstvo.

Ukrainian officials have also increasingly raised concerns about a possible new Russian push in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in the south, just as Russian forces continue to advance in the east, focusing their efforts near Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in Donetsk Oblast.

Russia's advance has picked up pace over the past months as Ukraine's military struggles to replenish its ranks, and Western arms are not flowing in as fast as Kyiv has hoped.

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The Kyiv IndependentOleg Sukhov