- Ukraine says it has liberated the south-eastern village of Robotyne; Russian airbase attacked by Ukrainian counter.
- Ukrainian forces raised the national flag in the settlement last week
- Robotyne is about six miles south of the frontline town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region.
- The move would help Ukraine to split Russian forces.
- Russian airbase attacked by Ukrainian counter-intelligence – report
- Tokmak is the next major target and will be a “big battle” to watch out for.
Ukraine says it has liberated the south-eastern village of Robotyne; Russian airbase attacked by Ukrainian counter-intelligence. Ukrainian forces raised the national flag in the settlement last week but said they still had mopping-up operations to do. They now believe they have broken through the most difficult line of Russian defences in the south and will begin to advance more quickly, a commander who led troops into Robotyne has said.
Robotyne is about six miles south of the frontline town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine believes it is a strategic location as it sits on an important road towards Tokmak, a Russian-occupied road and rail hub. If Ukraine is able to recapture Tokmak, it would mark a milestone and allow troops to press southwards towards the Sea of Azov.
The move would help Ukraine to split Russian forces. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said their forces were now moving southeastern of Robotyne and south of nearby Mala Tokmachka.
defence and security analyst Professor Michael Clarke explains the village is on high ground, along a ridge running north to south. “From Robotyne, which the Russians had fortified quite a lot, you can see the rest of the plain and they can see the 15 miles to Tokmak, south of Robotyne,” Clarke says.
Tokmak is the next major target and will be a “big battle” to watch out for. Clarke says the Ukrainians have “had a very tough time of it” for the last six weeks but are now beginning to push south towards Novoprokopivka. That will be “today’s battle”, he says, and from there Ukrainian forces will hope to take Ocheretuvate to the southeast. “If the Ukrainians achieve that, then they will really be on their way but if they get stuck at Tokmak for two or three weeks then it may be a different story.”
It took about 10 days for Ukraine to retake Robotyne, although Clarke believes it could take only a couple of days for Novoprokopivka to be liberated. “The Russians have counter-attacked and they seem to have put everything in the shop window – they don’t seem to have much in reserve.”
The Kursk airbase in western Russia was damaged in a Ukrainian attack over the weekend, according to a report. Counter-intelligence agents from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) were involved in the attack on the night of 26-27 August, sources told The New Voice of Ukraine.
Attack drones hit four Russian Su-30 fighters, a MiG-29 aircraft, two Pantsyr air defence systems, and S-300 radars, the source said. The explosions were “very spectacular”, they were quoted as saying, and the “precise results of the strikes and the number of casualties and wounded will be known soon”.
Several powerful explosions were heard in Kursk that night. The Russian defence ministry claimed it had successfully intercepted the drones – but the Ukrainian sources say otherwise.
(with inputs from agencies)
