Ukraine Says It Retook a Village, a Win That Highlights the Rough Going

Ukraine’s army mentioned on Monday that its forces had retaken the southern village of Robotyne, a tactical victory that underlines the immense problem Kyiv’s counteroffensive faces in punching via deep and dense Russian defenses.

The seize of Robotyne would imply that Ukrainian forces have penetrated the primary layer of minefields, tank traps, trenches and bunkers put in by the Russians since they invaded, army analysts say, probably creating new strategic alternatives.

But the Ukrainian counteroffensive that started in early June has superior just a few miles southward to succeed in Robotyne, in intense preventing with heavy casualties and gear losses, and an identical distance on one other axis to the east. The final goal of the thrust to Robotyne is town of Melitopol, about 45 miles farther south, and extra layers of Russian defenses lie in the way in which.

“Robotyne has been liberated,” mentioned Hanna Malyar, a Ukrainian deputy protection minister. She advised the Military Media Center, a platform for Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, that Ukrainian forces have been now advancing southeast towards the villages of Novoprokopivka and Ocheretuvato regardless of “fierce resistance” from Russian forces.

The claims couldn’t be independently confirmed. Russia’s Ministry of Defense on Monday reported preventing near Robotyne. Rybar, an influential Russian army blogger, mentioned that preventing was persevering with within the village, with out providing particulars, and disputed the Ukrainian claims of advances to the southeast.

The recapture of Robotyne, the primary settlement Ukraine has claimed to grab in almost two weeks, might assist increase the Ukrainian public’s morale after grinding preventing that has produced solely small positive aspects. And Ukrainian officers say that even small advances are important, permitting their artillery and missiles to strike deeper into Russian-held territory at Moscow’s troops, provides and transportation networks.

But the Russian have a far superior long-range arsenal that is ready to hit wherever in Ukraine, a indisputable fact that they demonstrated in a single day with a missile strike on an oil refinery greater than 80 miles from the closest Russian-held territory. Officials mentioned the assault, within the village of Hoholeve, within the japanese Poltava area, killed three folks and wounded 5 others, all refinery employees. One was lacking.

“As a result of the explosion, the oil mill premises caught fire,” Andriy Yermak, the top of the Ukrainian president’s workplace, mentioned in a publish on the Telegram messaging app, alongside two photos that confirmed a smoldering blaze and injury from its aftermath.

In Kryvyi Rih, a metropolis in central Ukraine about 45 miles from the entrance, the authorities mentioned {that a} missile strike had destroyed two cottages and broken 5 others. And within the Kherson area, farther south, Russian shelling killed a 63-year-old lady, an area army official mentioned.

Russian forces have been hitting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, notably power techniques, since shortly after President Vladimir V. Putin launched the invasion 18 months in the past. Strikes on oil crops led to nationwide gas shortages final spring, and assaults on energy crops and heating techniques left many Ukrainians with out electrical energy or warmth over the winter.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s authorities is keen to indicate progress to its Western backers so they’ll maintain supplying weapons and monetary assist.

Ukraine additionally desires to affix NATO, however alliance leaders have made clear that won’t occur so long as the battle is underway, and even the longer-term prospects for membership are murky. In July, NATO mentioned it could invite Ukraine to affix in some unspecified time in the future, however has not provided a timeline — primarily restating a dedication it made 15 years earlier.

Mr. Zelensky mentioned on Sunday that he anticipated Washington to as a substitute provide one thing like its relationship with Israel, which the United States designates as a “major non-NATO ally,” with a long-term dedication to supplying billions in army help and cooperation on protection and intelligence.

With their counteroffensive, Ukrainian commanders hope to drive a wedge via Russian-held areas, to chop off resupply to occupied territory within the south — Crimea and elements of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas. One power is driving towards Berdiansk, on the Sea of Azov, and the opposite towards Melitopol, close to that sea.

But even with its Western arsenal, the going has been gradual and expensive, elevating questions on how far the Ukrainians can go.

About 15 miles south of Robotyne lies the Russian-controlled metropolis of Tokmak, a road-and-rail hub whose recapture can be strategically important.

But satellite tv for pc photographs present that to succeed in Tokmak, Ukrainian forces must breach two extra Russian defensive strains made up of trenches, dense minefields, earthen berms and anti-tank boundaries.

At the identical time, Russia’s army might ship reinforcements to the Robotyne space “to engage Ukrainian forces in open terrain” whereas the second and third strains of protection make “final preparations for combat,” army analysts wrote in a paper launched in June by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based analysis group.

It mentioned that “a Ukrainian push through the second defensive line would allow Ukraine to hold Russia’s supply lines in the country at risk” and “threaten to reverse the forcible creation of a land bridge to occupied Crimea.”

In latest days, some army analysts even have instructed that Russia’s army may be shifting forces from the japanese entrance line to the south, with a purpose to reinforce troops round Robotyne, or alongside the following line of defense.

Valeriya Safronova and Daniel Victor contributed reporting.