Ukrainian troops continue to advance in the Zaporozhye region, in the south of Ukraine, where their priority is to conquer the Tokmak fortress as quickly as possible, which Kiev has bombarded intensively in the last few hours to drive out the Russian occupiers.
Ukrainian soldiersPhoto: Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP / Profimedia
At the same time, heavy artillery and Russian aviation are trying to slow down the counteroffensive of the Ukrainians along the entire southern front, where reinforcements numbering several thousand soldiers are said to have arrived, reports the Spanish news agency EFE on Sunday, taken over by Agerpres.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported on Sunday new advances towards Melitopol, the main city in the Zaporozhye region held by the Russians.
According to the report, it seems that the assault units managed to push the enemy further south and strengthened their positions in the Verbove area, a town that is on the way to Tokmak.
American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) confirmed that, in the last 96 hours, Kiev managed to approach the outskirts of the city of Verbove with its armored vehicles.
Overall, ISW points out that the defenses that the Ukrainian army managed to break through this week are not the last line of Russian defense in western Zaporozhye, representing only part of the fortifications erected by the Russians, which include minefields, anti-tank trenches and “teeth of dragon”.
At the same time, the Ukrainians carry out attacks on Novoprokopivka, a village located one and a half kilometers south of Robotine, in the direction of Verbove.
Regarding the continuation of the offensive, ISW shares Kiev’s view that “General Winter” should not be an insurmountable obstacle, although it clarifies that everything will depend on the balance of forces between the two sides and the arrival in Kiev of new arms deliveries western
Pro-Russian authorities reported shelling by Ukrainian artillery on the town of Tokmak on Saturday and Sunday, killing one person and wounding 11 others earlier today.
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that Russian aviation and artillery managed to destroy one of the positions of the 65th Ukrainian Mechanized Brigade near Robotine.
It seems that up to 35 enemy soldiers were killed in the attack, and four military vehicles were destroyed, he claims.
Moscow’s representative in Zaporozhye, Vladimir Rogov, says that for “almost a month” the weather will allow the Ukrainian army to maintain its current strategy towards Tokmak unchanged.
Instead, he claims, with the arrival of cold, rain and mud, the Ukrainians will focus on crossing the Dnieper River to regain control of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, located near the city of Energodar, also in Zaporozhye.
At the same time, according to ISW, Kiev insists – it seems – on continuing to strike Russian positions around Bahmut (Eastern Donetsk region), contrary to US recommendations, in an attempt to force Moscow to concentrate its forces in the area so as not to deploy reinforcements to the southern front.
In addition, in Kursk, the capital of the Russian region of the same name on the border with Ukraine, a drone struck an administrative building that, according to the Ukrainian secret services, belonged to the Federal Security Service (FSB, formerly KGB).
The governor of the Kursk region, Roman Staravoit, said on Telegram that the roof of the building suffered minor damage as a result of the attack.
However, “it is not so. It was a direct impact,” says a Ukrainian source.
The RBC-Ukraine news agency published a video circulating on social media showing a column of black smoke over the city, the scene in 1943 of the largest tank battle in history between the Soviet army and Nazi troops.
Moreover, Kiev also claimed to have hit an oil refinery near Kursk airfield.
For this reason, the local authorities had to cancel the salvos on the occasion of the City Day, founded almost a thousand years ago (1032).
The Ukrainian military intelligence services also reported a sabotage operation against two military garrisons in the Moscow and Kaluga regions, where four motorized military equipment and a tank truck were destroyed.
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