The Ukrainian army has retaken from Russian forces the village of Robotyne, on the southern front, where Kiev forces are carrying out a difficult offensive that began in June, a deputy defense minister said on Monday. “Robotyne has been released. Our forces are advancing southeast of Robotyne and south of Mala Tokmashka,” Ganna Maliar told Ukrainian TV of the two settlements in the Zaporizhia region. “The enemy is suffering huge losses in these directions, but he is trying to concentrate his forces there so as not to abandon his positions,” she said.
On the eastern front, Ukrainian troops also advanced south of Bakhmout – captured in May by the Russians – and recaptured a square kilometer in the past week of fighting, the deputy minister said.
In the northeast, Ganna Maliar acknowledged “very intense” fighting in the Kupyansk sector, where the Russian military has claimed gains in recent weeks. The Ukrainian army has been leading a very difficult counter-offensive in the east and south since June.
Russian troops spent the winter and spring fortifying their positions, with trenches, anti-tank booby traps and minefields for hundreds of kilometres, particularly in the south.
At least two people were killed in a Russian strike in the Poltava region of central Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian presidency, Andriï Yermak, announced on Monday on Telegram. “The Russians launched a missile attack on the village of Gogolévé”, he lamented, reporting a toll of “two people dead and five injured”. Regional governor Dmytro Lounin reported two dead, “two people hospitalized with minor injuries” and two missing.