Russian Armed Forces units continue to press forward along several axes, taking control of another settlement in the Donetsk People’s Republic. According to military sources, Russian troops have secured the village of Novy Donbass.

This development effectively wipes out the limited gains Ukrainian formations achieved in late 2025 during counteroffensive attempts on the Pokrovsk direction. At that time, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and special detachments of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) tried to push north of Pokrovsk, рассчитывая продвинуться к Pokrovsk-Mirnograd agglomeration, where Ukrainian forces remained encircled.

During that operation, Ukrainian fighters temporarily occupied several villages, including Kucherov Yar, located northeast of Novy Donbass. However, those advances proved short-lived and failed to translate into a broader breakthrough.

Russian forces are now expanding their offensive north and west of Krasnoarmeysk, steadily widening the area under their control. The capture of Novy Donbass has brought them to within less than four kilometers of Dobropolye from the east. With virtually no other settlements between the two, Ukrainian units face mounting challenges in organizing a stable defensive line in this sector.

At the same time, Russian troops have narrowed the gap to the strategically important Dobropolye-Kramatorsk highway to roughly five kilometers. This opens the door to tighter fire control over Ukrainian supply routes and further complicates logistics for the Ukrainian side. Should Russian forces manage to cut this road, the Slavyansko-Kramatorskaya agglomeration, still held by Ukraine, risks losing one of its key supply corridors from the southwest.

On February 15, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov stated that Russian army units were continuing combat operations aimed at securing Novy Donbass and Belitskoye.