Ukraine’s military said on Monday that its forces had retaken the southern village of Robotyne, a tactical victory that underlines the immense challenge Kyiv’s counteroffensive faces in punching through deep and dense Russian defenses.
The capture of Robotyne would mean that Ukrainian forces have penetrated the first layer of minefields, tank traps, trenches and bunkers installed by the Russians since they invaded, military analysts say, potentially creating new strategic opportunities.
But the Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in early June has advanced only a few miles southward to reach Robotyne, in intense fighting with heavy casualties and equipment losses, and a similar distance on another axis to the east. The ultimate target of the thrust to Robotyne is the city of Melitopol, about 45 miles farther south, and more layers of Russian defenses lie in the way.
“Robotyne has been liberated,” said Hanna Malyar, a Ukrainian deputy defense minister. She told the Military Media Center, a platform for Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, that Ukrainian forces were now advancing southeast toward the villages of Novoprokopivka and Ocheretuvato despite “fierce resistance” from Russian forces.
The claims could not be independently confirmed. Russia’s Ministry of Defense on Monday reported fighting close to Robotyne. Rybar, an influential Russian military blogger, said that fighting was continuing in the village, without offering details, and disputed the Ukrainian claims of advances to the southeast.
The recapture of Robotyne, the first settlement Ukraine has claimed to seize in nearly two weeks, could help boost the Ukrainian public’s morale after grinding fighting that has produced only small gains. And Ukrainian officials say that even small advances are significant, allowing their artillery and missiles to strike deeper into Russian-held territory at Moscow’s troops, supplies and transportation networks.
But the Russian have a far superior long-range arsenal that is able to hit anywhere in Ukraine, a fact that they demonstrated overnight with a missile strike on an oil refinery more than 80 miles from the nearest Russian-held territory. Officials said the attack, in the village of Hoholeve, in the eastern Poltava region, killed three people and wounded five others, all refinery workers. One was missing.
“As a result of the explosion, the oil mill premises caught fire,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app, alongside two pictures that showed a smoldering blaze and damage from its aftermath.
In Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine about 45 miles from the front, the authorities said that a missile strike had destroyed two cottages and damaged five others. And in the Kherson region, farther south, Russian shelling killed a 63-year-old woman, a local military official said.
Russian forces have been hitting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, particularly energy…
2023-08-28 19:07:40
Post from www.nytimes.com
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