Ukraine recaptures strategic town in southeast
Ukraine announced on Monday that its forces had recaptured the town of Robotyne in southeastern Ukraine and were trying to advance further south in its counteroffensive against Russian forces, Reuters reported, as cited by news.ro.
The Ukrainian army said last week that its forces had raised the national flag in the strategic town, but that it was still conducting operations.
“Robotyne has been liberated,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Monday.
The town is located 10 km south of the frontline town of Orihiv, in the Zaporizhzhya region, on a major road leading to Tokmak, a Russian-occupied road and rail junction.
Capturing Tokmak would be a major milestone as Ukrainian forces press south towards the Sea of Azov, in a military campaign aimed at breaking up the front line that Russian forces have established since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine’s success in recapturing Robotyne, which Russia has not confirmed, comes after reports that high-ranking NATO military chiefs met with the Ukrainian general staff this month to discuss resetting Ukraine’s military strategy.
Deputy Defense Minister Maliar also announced that Ukrainian forces were also battling Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, and that progress had been slower than expected as they encountered vast minefields and Russian trenches. Maliar described the situation on the battlefield in the east as “very hot” in the past week. She said Russian forces were amassing new forces there and regrouping, and that Moscow was looking to deploy its best soldiers there.
Ukrainian forces continued to advance south of Bakhmut, Maliar also said, referring to the near-devastated eastern city that was captured by Moscow’s forces in May after months of heavy fighting. She added that Ukrainian forces had recaptured 1 square kilometre around Bakhmut in the past week, and that Russian forces had made no progress.
In the latest of Russia’s frequent air strikes on Ukraine, two people were killed overnight after a vegetable oil plant was hit in the central Poltava region, the regional governor said.
Russia, for its part, said it had shot down a Ukrainian drone flying towards Moscow in the early hours of Monday, in an incident that briefly disrupted flights over the Russian capital.
