Ukraine – Russia War: latest live news | Ukraine reports at least 16 dead and 20 injured in a Russian attack on a market in the east of the country

Russia finally acknowledges that it has lost control of Robotine, in Zaporizhzhia

The interim governor imposed by Russia in the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia, Yevgeny Balitsky, has finally acknowledged that Russian troops have withdrawn from the town of Robotine, around which Kiev forces are currently advancing further south. “The Russian Army abandoned this town in a tactical step,” the politician said on the Soloviov Live program, where, he stressed, there was no longer anywhere to entrench himself in a razed village.

According to Balitski, Robotine now only exists on the map and “we can say that we do not control it.” Russia has denied for days the official Ukrainian version, which reported at the end of August that Kiev troops had completely taken the town.

Last week, after the liberation of Robotine, the Ukrainian Army expanded its counteroffensive towards the occupied neighboring town of Verbove and claimed over the weekend to have broken Russia’s first line of defense in some points of the southeastern front.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) indicated today that geolocated images from Tuesday indicate that Ukrainian forces are advancing northwest and west of Robotine, as well as south of the town and northwest of Verbove.

Ukraine’s objective is now to overcome Russia’s second line of defense, apparently less dense in terms of mines, dragon’s teeth and anti-tank ditches than the first, to reach the city of Tokmak, an important communications hub with roads to Melitopol. and Berdiansk, on the Sea of ​​Azov.

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