MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. Denis Pushilin, acting leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), has promised to rename the village of New York near Gorlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic back to Novgorodskoye as soon as the locality is liberated from Ukrainian troops.

"We have yet to liberate [the village of] New York, and it will cease to be New York," Pushilin said in a message posted on his Telegram channel during a visit to Artyomovsk, the city recently liberated by Russian forces which was known as Bakhmut in Ukraine.

According to the acting DPR head, Artyomovsk will keep its Soviet name. All localities in the republic have their official names as of May 11, 2014, when referendums were held in the DPR and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), he explained.

Founded by German Lutherans and Mennonites in the late 19th century, the village of New York was renamed Novgorodskoye in 1951. The village was under Ukraine’s control after the conflict erupted in Donbass in 2014. In 2021, Ukrainian officials changed its name back to New York.