The Ukrainian army on Tuesday confirmed the entry of its troops into Robotyne, in Zaporijia province, after advances in recent days near this city in the south of the country, hitherto occupied by Russian troops.
“Our fighters are in the city of Robotyne,” Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavski, commander of the strategic operational group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in charge of the southeastern part of the front, wrote on his Telegram account.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar also reported on Telegram on Tuesday about the entry into Robotyne of the Ukrainian army’s 47th Brigade.
After being forced to leave the city, Maliar explained, Russian forces use artillery pieces against the city and the 47th Brigade evacuates the remaining civilians from the area.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a private US institution that monitors the course of the conflict, confirmed through localized images Tuesday morning that Ukrainian troops have arrived in the center of Robotyne.
The city is in one of the three front segments of the counter-offensive that has been running since early June.
Russia, for its part, said on Tuesday it had repelled another armed incursion by Ukraine into the Bryansk border region, but did not provide information on casualties in the fighting.
“Thanks to the coordinated and heroic actions of the border guards of the FSB of the Bryansk region, the Ministry of Defense and special units of the National Guard of the Bryansk region, the attack was repelled,” said regional governor Alexandre Bogomaz. in the Telegram.
Russian border regions have been the target of raids on several occasions, mostly claimed by units of fighters claiming to be Russian opponents of the Kremlin, based in Ukraine.
At the same time, Russian forces continue to bomb Ukrainian cities and at least this Tuesday one person was killed and another injured after new attacks by Russian forces on the town of Komishani, in Kherson (south).
In turn, governor Oleg Sinegubov in Kharkov (east) stressed that the Ukrainian forces have repelled more attacks by the Russian forces that have continued in the direction of Kupiansk in recent days.
“Our forces have not lost a single village in the Kharkov region,” Sinegubov stressed, speaking to state television, according to Ukrinform news agency.
“All attempts by the Russians to attack our positions were violently repulsed, they suffered significant losses and returned to their previous positions,” the governor said.
In addition to these developments, Ukrainian saboteurs, coordinated by Kiev’s military intelligence services, carried out two recent drone strikes that hit bombers stationed at air bases in Russia, Ukrainian media reported.
Ukrainian bodies attributed two attacks to saboteurs: a Saturday attack on Soltsy air base in northwestern Russia’s Novgorod region, some 700 kilometers north of the Ukrainian border, and Monday’s attack on Shaikovka air base, in southwest Kaluga, a region located about 300 kilometers northeast of the border with Ukraine.
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Ukrainian news channel LIGA.net on Monday that at least one Russian warplane had been damaged in the attack on Shaikovka.
Yusov claimed that the operation was carried out by people working closely with the Ukrainian secret army.
Russia’s defense ministry said the attack on Soltsy damaged one plane, without further comment.
Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC, analyzed by the Associated Press, showed what appeared to be ten Tupolev Tu-22M long-range bombers parked on the board at Soltsy Air Base on Aug. 16.
Two days later, the bombers had left the base and a large black mark was visible on one of the planks where one of the Tupolevs had been parked.
Photos reportedly taken from Soltsy airbase and published by Russian and Ukrainian media showed a Russian Tu-22M bomber in flames after the attack.
Source: DN
