It was a particularly “long” and “arduous” battle, but the capture of the locality of Robotyne, claimed by Kiev this week, opens the way for a possible Ukrainian offensive towards the occupied south and Crimea annexed by the Russia. “By being entrenched on the flanks of Robotyne, we open the way to [the southern towns] of Tokmak, then finally to Melitopol and the [administrative] border of Crimea,” Dmytro Kouleba, the head of diplomacy, said on Tuesday. Ukrainian, in front of French diplomats during a speech in Paris on Tuesday, but made public on Wednesday August 30.
Listing Russian planes, helicopters, and drones “dominating the sky” or very dense minefields, he claimed that this city was “one of the most difficult sectors of the front”. For him, this town of a few hundred pre-war inhabitants is “strategically important”.
Robotyne is on a route down south to Tokmak (pre-war population 30,000) and Melitopol (pre-war population 150,000) before reaching Crimea. These two localities are among the main cities in the occupied part of the Zaporizhia region, city-states taken by Russia in the first weeks of the invasion in early 2022.
One of the objectives of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, launched last June, is to cut off the unity of the territories occupied by the Russian army and which constitute a land bridge, bordering the Sea of Azov, linking annexed Crimea and Russia. This area is essential to the logistics of Russian supplies.
The capture of the locality comes after nearly three months of counter-offensive which have so far only resulted in limited progress in terms of km2, so much so that in the West voices were raised to question Ukraine’s ability to achieve its goals.
With Robotyne, the Ukrainians hope to be able to drive a wedge into the formidable Russian defense lines, made up of anti-tank traps, minefields and trenches.