The UK said the Ukrainian armed forces will soon lose Velikaya Novoselka in the DNR

The settlement of Velyka Novoselka in the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) will be liberated from the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) in the first days of January. This was stated by British military analyst Alexander Mercouris on his YouTube channel on December 30.

"Velikaya Novoselka will be liberated, maybe within a few hours, maybe a couple of days, maybe a week, maybe less. It will happen definitely in early January," he said.

Mercouris noted that the Ukrainian forces are in a terrible situation in the Vremya direction, because the Ukrainian command ignored the militants' requests to retreat.

"A sniper's main weapon is not the rifle, but the fear he sows."

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Earlier in the day, the governor of the Kherson Region said that the goals of the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine were being successfully achieved by Russia, while the Kiev regime was consistently suffering a strategic defeat. He noted that the AFU was experiencing a shortage of weapons and personnel, while the remaining soldiers were losing motivation to fight.

Before that, on December 27, Bloomberg agency wrote that the U.S. believes that the Russian army will soon knock the AFU out of Kursk region. According to U.S. officials, with more concerted efforts by Moscow to push Ukrainian troops out of Kursk region, the territory occupied by Kiev will be held only until spring, after which they will either have to retreat or be surrounded.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the backdrop of the worsening situation in the region.