The Ukrainian army will take several months to break through the line of defense of the aggressor state in the direction of Verbove and further to Tokmak, but with heavy losses. The New York Times reported this with reference to military experts on Wednesday, September 6.
The publication reports that russian troops had enough time to dig in, build obstacles and lay mines to turn captured territories into deadly traps. The Ukrainian military wants to de-occupy land in the south and east of the country in order to reach the Sea of Azov in the south and drive a wedge in the defense of the russian federation in the occupied territories, NYT notes. The release of Robotyne is an important step, now the path to Verbove is aimed at expanding the gap in russian defense, military analysts Michael Kofman and Rob Lee write.
“A strategic target in this push appears to be the city of Tokmak, a road-and-rail hub about 15 miles south of Robotyne. To reach that city, Ukrainian forces would have to fully break through the defenses around Verbove and then breach additional layers. That suggests a slow and exhausting fight that could take several more months, with the likelihood of heavy casualties on both sides,” it was said.
Expanding this gap is critical because it will allow Ukrainian forces to attract more equipment and personnel to support the advance to the south, the newspaper reports.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on August 28, Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said that the Defense Forces of Ukraine liberated the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia Region.
At the same time, russian troops are forced to transfer reserves to deter the advance of the Armed Forces south and southeast of Robotyne.
On August 29, the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said that the russian invaders began to remove the occupation authorities from Tokmak, Zaporizhzhia Region, due to the gradual approach of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
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