Day 563. Today, there are a lot of updates from the Tokmak direction. First of all, today, it was confirmed that Ukrainians secured one of the most important supply roads in the bridgehead and started reinforcing the region to ramp up the offensive operation. As you can see, the road to Robotyne goes very close to the contact line, and if the northern section was more or less secured because Ukrainians established a buffer zone consisting of several fields and tree lines, then the southern section went right in front of Russian trenches and fortification, meaning that Russians had complete fire control.
That is why, as reported by multiple Russian sources, every day, Ukrainians were flying at least two transport helicopters at a very low altitude to deliver supplies of ammunition to Robotyne. However, recently release footage showed how Russians are shelling the trenches and fortifications adjacent to the road, which confirms that Ukrainians finally pushed Russians out of their positions west of Robotyne. So far, there is no evidence that 2 other trench networks nearby are under Ukrainians, however, most sources indicate that the whole filed is at least in the grey zone. As Russians lost crucial fortifications around Robotyne and retreated in all directions, the pressure on Ukrainian logistics was alleviated, and Ukrainians visibly increased the potency of their attacks on Verbove and recently breached one more defense line.
As you can see, the second line of defense consists of several lines of fortifications. The first line of fortifications was created to prevent a mechanized breakthrough, which is why it has an anti-tank ditch, dragon teeth, and similar fortifications. The second line of fortifications was geared to resist infantry assaults, which is why it has a lot of firing positions and is broken down into smaller units.
Around a week ago, Ukrainians successfully breached the first part of the defense line, as can be seen from the footage made by Ukrainian fighters who passed dragon teeth on their way to the contact line. After that, there was a small tactical pause, and as Russian analysts concluded, Ukrainians were preparing for the second powerful push because they were seen reinforcing this region with elements from the 82nd Brigade. The analysts predicted that the main vector of attack would come south of Verbove, where Ukrainians would try to make a deep penetration and cut off Russian supplies to the village. And this is exactly what happened.
The choice of the target is not surprising because if we look at the topographic map, we can see that this is where the Russian defense line is in the lowlands and, therefore, at its weakest tactical position. Even though Ukrainians usually attack along the tree lines, in order to boost the relative tactical advantage, Ukrainians also leveraged their newly generated gains and launched supporting attacks from a slightly more elevated ground. In order to simplify the job of the infantry, Ukrainians concentrated their artillery and drone fire on this section of the defense line.
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Geolocated footage shows how Ukrainians are shelling the tree lines with cluster munitions to undermine Russian defense. Ukrainian drone operators from the 82nd Brigade also released a lot of videos of destroying Russian forces. The drone strikes were instrumental in preparation for assaults on extensive trench networks because even cluster shells are not as effective as a controlled drone that chases and hunts down Russians. After a series of powerful ground operations that followed the artillery and drone strikes, the Russian defense south of Verbove was breached.
Ukrainian fighters released a video confirming that they took control over new trenches and are preparing to storm the tree lines in front of them. Soon, the clashes moved south of Verbove, as indicated by the geolocated footage of Russian artillery strikes. However, regular artillery strikes were not enough, and Russians started to fear that Ukrainians would indeed penetrate them deeper and cause a complete collapse. That is why Russians started engaging their aviation and dropping massive bombs on the fields to prevent Ukrainian advancement. In the face of supercompensating resistance, Ukrainians decided to shift their focus on expanding control over the second line of defense to shave it off completely and open access to more opportunities.
Nonetheless, it seems like Russians understood that the situation around Verobove is critical, and its defense is bound to repeat the story of Robotyne, which is why they started building new defenses east of Verbove. Satellite footage from Planet Labs shows that if previously Russians had only an anti-vehicle ditch, then now they also added dragon teeth behind it. Overall, Ukrainians finally breached all lines of fortifications that created the second line of defense, and now their goal is to expand the bridgehead. The analysts concluded that the gains are finally becoming operationally significant, and Russian counterattacks are now much less successful than previously because Ukrainians use the captured fortifications to rebuff Russians more easily.
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