Russia deploys its best fighting unit to the front lines in desperate bid to halt Ukraine advance as counter-offensive achieves breakthrough

Russia has deployed one of its elite fighting units to the front lines in a desperate bid to stop Ukraine’s advance.

While Kiev’s counteroffensive has progressed slowly since it was launched earlier this year, Ukraine reported a breakthrough on Monday, saying its troops had liberated the southeastern settlement of Robotyne.

His forces are now trying to push further south, likely with the ultimate goal of reaching the Sea of ​​Azov to split Russia’s “land bridge” connecting the invading country’s mainland to occupied Crimea, providing a supply route. vital.

The Ukrainian military said last week that its forces had raised the national flag at the strategic settlement but were still carrying out cleanup operations.

In response, reports have said that Moscow has deployed its 76th Guards Air Assault Division (GAAD), sometimes described as Russia’s best fighting unit, to the region, and elements were sighted near Robotyne last night. last week, according to reports.

While Kiev’s counteroffensive has progressed slowly since it was launched earlier this year, Ukraine reported a breakthrough on Monday, saying its troops had liberated the southeastern settlement of Robotyne.

In a daily update on the situation in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of Warfare, a Washington-based think tank, said on Saturday that it had seen evidence of “lateral redeployments of elements of the VDV 7th Division of the Mountain Guard from Kherson Oblast to the front line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and elements of the 76th VDV Division from the Kreminna area to the Robotyne area.”

This, he said, suggests “that the Russian forces may be using relatively elite units to reinforce critical sectors of the front.”

Yesterday he repeated the report on the redeployment of elite units, adding: “Russian forces devoted a considerable amount of materiel, effort and manpower to hold the series of defensive positions that Ukrainian forces are currently penetrating.”

He added: “It is not clear if the Russian forces will retain the advantages they have had if they cannot commit the same level of resources and personnel to the next layers of defense.” However, the next Russian defensive layer will most likely pose significant challenges to the Ukrainian advance.

Images circulating on Ukrainian social media appeared to show two patches of Russian units from the 234th and 104th Guards Airborne Assault regiments, both part of 76 GAAD. The patches were reportedly taken as trophies.

Russia’s 234th regiment is believed to have been involved in the Bucha massacre, a mass murder of Ukrainian civilians by Russian soldiers in March 2022.

Extensive reporting by the Associated Press and other media outlets uncovered how the regiment carried out a ‘clean’ operation in the kyiv suburb, arresting, torturing and murdering Ukrainian residents.

Elements of the 76th GAAD had been fighting in Kremmina, in the Luhansk region, some 240 kilometers northeast of Robotyne.

Their sighting around the southern village suggests that some have been moved.

Ukrainian soldiers from the ‘Skala’ Separate Assault Battalion enter the besieged village of Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, in this screenshot taken from a video released on August 25.

Ukrainian forces raise the national flag in the Robotyne settlement, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, in this screenshot taken from a social media video posted on August 23, 2023.

Ukrainian military fires small multiple launch rocket systems at Russian troops

The reports come as Ukrainian forces believe they have broken through the most difficult line of Russian defenses in the south and will now begin to advance more quickly, a commander who led troops toward Robotyne said last week.

“Robotyne has been released,” the army quoted Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar as saying.

The settlement is six miles south of the border town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region, on a major road to Tokmak, a Russian-occupied rail and road hub.

The capture of Tokmak would be a milestone as Ukrainian troops push south toward the Azov Sea in a military campaign that aims to split Russian forces after the full-scale invasion of Moscow in February 2022.

Kiev’s generals want to reach the city of Melitopol, about 40 miles southwest of Robotyne, to cut Russia’s “land bridge”: a strip of Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Moscow forces that connects Russia with Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that was annexed by Vladimir. Putin in 2014.

Maliar told Ukrainian television that kyiv’s troops, which began their counteroffensive in early June, were now moving southeast of Robotyne and south of nearby Mala Tokmachka.

Ukraine’s success in retaking Robotyne, which Russia has not confirmed, follows media reports of a meeting this month of top NATO military chiefs and Ukraine’s top general to reset Ukraine’s military strategy.

Ukrainian forces are also fighting Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, and progress has been slower than expected in the counteroffensive because they have run into vast minefields and Russian trenches.

Maliar described the battlefield situation in the east as “very hot” last week.

He said that Russian troops were gathering new forces there and regrouping, and that Moscow intended to deploy its best troops there.

Ukrainian forces had continued to advance south of Bakhmut, he said, referring to the nearly devastated eastern city that was captured by Moscow troops in May after months of fierce fighting that resulted in tens of thousands of casualties.

A Ukrainian serviceman walks near a destroyed Ukrainian tank near the village of Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia region, on August 25.

A Ukrainian serviceman operates an FPV drone from his frontline positions near the village of Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia region, on August 25.

He added that Ukrainian forces had retaken 1 square kilometer (0.39 square miles) around Bakhmut last week, and Russian troops had made no breakthrough.

Meanwhile, in the latest of Russia’s frequent airstrikes on Ukraine, two people were killed overnight when a vegetable oil plant was attacked in the central Poltava region, the region’s governor said.

Russia said it had shot down a Ukrainian drone flying towards Moscow in the early hours of Monday, in an incident that briefly disrupted flights over the Russian capital.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the situation on the battlefield following reports of the latest attacks.