Ukrainian officials are claiming that their forces have penetrated Russian defenses and captured the village of Robotyne in southeastern Ukraine.
The retaking of the city that Russian forces had previously seized was announced by Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar, reported the Washington Examiner. If true, the move would constitute Ukraine’s most significant territorial gain since its summer counteroffensive began.
Ukraine’s battlefield success was supported by an analysis conducted by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
“Malyar’s statement is consistent with the scale of Ukrainian offensive operations that ISW has observed in southern and eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian forces are currently conducting two operational efforts in southern Ukraine in western Zaporizhia Oblast and in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area, and Malyar did not indicate one effort as the main offensive direction,” reads the ISW assessment.
At the same time that Ukraine seems to be making headway in its efforts to reclaim land occupied by Russia, swarms of drone strikes have reportedly hit multiple targets in Russia itself, according to the Associated Press. Russian state media acknowledged that a strike on an airport in Pskov damaged four II-76 transport aircraft.
Russian officials accused Ukraine of being responsible for the attacks. Ukraine has made it a practice not to officially take responsibility for attacks on Russian soil.
The Dallas Express reached out to retired Col. Douglas Macgregor, a former advisor to President Trump, for his assessment of Ukraine’s claims about recapturing Russian-occupied territory.
“[The] Ukrainians are lying,” claimed Macgregor in an email.
“Russians fell back, established positions on three sides of Robytne to annihilate the Ukrainian forces in the pocket. [The Ukrainian] leadership feared another Bakhmut,” Macgregor wrote in reference to the bloody battle for the Donetsk region that cost Ukraine tens of thousands of soldiers to defend.
“Now, it appears, the [Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU)] had grown tired of smacking their heads against the wall there. Pressure now appears to be focused in the area between Rabotino and Verbovoye. This strategy involves serious difficulties,” Macgregor explained. “[AFU] is now moving across open ground where they are more vulnerable to artillery, rockets, drones, and aviation. However, this new strategy allowed them to gain territory rather quickly, even at a massive cost in lost lives and equipment to serve them in the information war.”
The Dallas Express reached out to ISW for comment but did not receive a response by press time.