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Ukrainian soldiers maneuver a Bradley fighting vehicle in the frontline town of Orichiv.
CNN –
Ukrainian officials said on Thursday that further advances had taken place on the southern front and some units had penetrated “deep into Russian defenses” – a possible sign of progress in Kiev’s bitter counteroffensive.
Col. Mykola Urshalovych, deputy director of planning for the National Guard, said at a briefing in Kyiv that “units of the offensive guard brigades in the Melitopol sector are displacing the occupiers from their positions and consolidating their positions despite strong Russian resistance.”
Urshalovych also claimed that “despite the dense mining and engineering equipment and strong resistance of the occupiers, our units achieved partial success, advancing both into the depths of the enemy’s defenses and along the front.”
Russian-appointed officials in occupied Zaporizhia paint a very different picture. Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-appointed military-civilian administration of Zaporizhzhia, said there was an attack on a Ukrainian assault group in the Robotyne area, where heavy fighting has been going on for about two months.
Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Rogov as saying: “Our attack drones hit an attack group of Ukrainian militants who tried to break through to our positions in the direction of Orichiv between the villages of Robotyne and Verbowe.”
Rogov said the Ukrainians were forced to retreat with heavy losses.
However, another Russian-appointed official suggested that Ukrainian reinforcements in the region could lead to a deterioration in the defense situation.
Yevgeny Balitskiy, the acting governor of the occupied parts of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on Telegram that “the enemy is completing the redeployment of its units in the Robotyne-Verbove region, after which we expect the situation in the Robotyne-Verbove region to deteriorate.”
But he continued: “We understand that the enemy cannot expect success, the morale of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is very low, but it is time for the ‘quarterly report’.” [their] Western curators are looking for Kiev’s leaders – and they desperately need a ‘victory’.”
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CNN is unable to verify battlefield reports from either side. However, an open source analysis of the available videos suggests that some Ukrainian units broke through a key Russian defense line near the village of Werbowe.
According to several analysts, Ukrainian vehicles from the 82nd Air Assault Brigade had crossed a trench system. The open-source investigative group GeoConfirmed wrote that the “Russian defensive line consisted of an anti-tank ditch, dragon teeth and a trench system.”
It said reconnaissance units had established a foothold in the trench system, “followed by infantry units to clear the trenches…The forest boundaries are full of trenches and defensive positions that must be cleared before vehicles can approach.”
GeoConfirmed released a video showing armored vehicles crossing the trench system with the comment “Marder and Stryker attack west of Verbove behind the main line.” It is unclear when the drone video was taken.
A Ukrainian officer with extensive experience in reporting on frontline changes said on [anti-tank] Trenches, minefields and dragon’s teeth. A remarkable milestone… The next few days will show whether the penetration leads to a breakthrough.”
Kiev’s troops have been trying for months to advance as part of a counteroffensive to recapture areas conquered by Russia. However, so far the gains have been marginal and come at high costs.
Without air superiority and faced with dense minefields and reinforced Russian units, Ukrainian forces have so far struggled to break through the complex Russian defenses in occupied Zaporizhzhia on the southern front.
They are still around 20 kilometers from the strategic Russian center of Tokmak, their first major target in the southern offensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during his visit to Washington DC on Thursday that securing air defense was among the top issues on his agenda.
Thursday’s development came after Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar told CNN on Monday that her country had been able to clear 300 square kilometers since Ukraine’s counteroffensive began in the summer.
“In total, we liberated 300 square kilometers in the summer campaign,” Maliar told CNN, downplaying the figure and highlighting the difficult conditions that Ukrainian forces were able to overcome.