After a summer of feverish advances on the battlefield where every kilometer reconquered was paid for in rivers of blood, Ukrainian forces On Monday announced the capture of a small town Zaporozhye frontIt is much more important because of its geographical location rather than its demographic weight. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar confirmed the incident. Robotine’s “liberation”A village located a few kilometers south. originalwhere your forces are Russian invasion they had concentrated an important contingent of troops. The reconquest of the population worked for the Ukrainian army. crossing the first line of Russian defense, the opportunity they’ve been after for weeks to reinvigorate their lives counterattack and to pacify the growing disillusionment in the country due to insufficient progress.
like a robot one of the ways. Sea of AzovThis is one of the targets of the counterattack, which began in early June and aimed to divide the country. district corridor It connects the Russian conquests in Ukraine. To achieve this, the Kiev army would have to reach far. Melitopol anyone berdyanskIt is located approximately 60 and 100 kilometers, respectively, from Robotine, through which one of the axes of the local counterattack passes. “We’re not going to stop here,” one of the commanders who led the Ukrainian troops to take the town told Reuters. “The next stop is Berdyansk. I made it clear to my soldiers that our target was the Sea of Azov, not Robotin.” The small town is much closer. KnobIt is an important logistics and rail hub for Russian troops and is located only 30 kilometers away.
Robotine is the first town to be recaptured by local forces in the past two weeks; this is a fact that demonstrates the enormous difficulties they face in penetrating the complex Russian defences. Ilow of air delays in ukrainian Western arms deliveries and above all Abundant Russian defense These are some of the elements that explain Kiev’s difficulties in reclaiming territory at this critical stage of the war, a year and a half after Vladimir Putin ordered a large-scale invasion of his neighboring country. These defenses consist of up to three lines separated and dispersed. minefields, anti-tank trenchesmilitary watchtowers or concrete cones.
Bloody, long and hard
Last week, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, explained in an interview that Ukrainian forces managed to pass the first of three Russian defense lines from various points on the front. “Especially on the axis of progress they are attacking right now,” he told a Jordanian media outlet. Milley declined to comment on the possibility of a counterattack, but said it was planned so far. “very bloody, slow, long and difficult”. According to The Guardian, Washington has been pressuring its ally for several weeks to concentrate all its efforts on the south and forget about other points on the front. BahmutThe martyred town of Donbas in the east, where Ukrainian forces are also trying to retake the land.
According to sources quoted by Reuters, Ukrainian military commanders see Russia’s first line of defense, which is now left behind at points like Robotine, as the most intense, dangerous and complex line to overcome. This does not mean that progress will be any easier than it has been so far. mine clearance vehicles The drop-off of oil demanded by local sappers so desperately, and the Russian air superiority imposing a very high price on every meter saved in Kiev. scarcity Geographical accidents It also greatly complicates Ukraine’s progress in the south of the country, as one soldier described on social networks this weekend.
Attack on Russian military base
“There was a lot of talk about fortifications and minefields. But there is more. Each one protect was torn. in one chapter Highway to MariupolAnti-tank fortifications were built. We’re not just talking about trenches, we’re talking about an entire hiding place, ditches, and even the system. underground tunnels in some places,” wrote soldier Oleksandr Solonko.
Meanwhile, Kiev insists on hitting from behind. According to reports in various Ukrainian media, drones operated by intelligence services attacked a Russian military base in the Kursk region on Sunday. The same sources claim that 4 Su-30 fighter jets and 1 Mig-29 were destroyed or seriously damaged in the attack.