Ukrainian forces are gradually making progress in a counteroffensive against Russian defensive lines in the southeastern regions of the country, according to Ukrainian official reports and Russian military bloggers cited by CNN.

The Ukrainian army said Thursday that its units had advanced to two villages south and east of Robotyny, a village in Zaporizhzhia that Kyiv captured last week.

“In the direction of Novodanilivka-Novoprokopivka, they acted successfully, strengthening positions, conducting artillery fire on identified enemy targets and conducting counter-battery actions,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported.

According to the 46th Brigade, which is fighting in the area, the fighting has moved to the northern outskirts of Novoprokopivka, a small rural settlement about four kilometers south of Robotyny and near the line of Russian fortifications.

Also, the units were stationed on the western outskirts of the village of Verbove, which is in the southeast of Ukraine, the brigade reported in Telegram. The fighting was already very close to the defense lines of the Russian Federation, the brigade added.

“(The Russians) are constantly counterattacking and actively defending themselves – we are moving, pressing the occupiers, but a month of fighting has shown that the enemy is not going to give up the captured lands – there is still a lot of work ahead. “, Ukrainians say.

Two Ukrainian assault groups tried to break through the defense line on the outskirts of the city of Verbove “and were destroyed,” said Yevhen Balitskyi, an official appointed by Russia to control the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia.

And the well-known Russian military blogger WarGonzo stated that Ukrainian troops were advancing on Verbove from the west, but Russian units “are holding the defense on the approaches to the settlement.”

Why the village of Verbove is important for the Ukrainian offensive

The new information about the advance of Ukrainian troops here came a day after Forbes noted that after the release of Robotyny, the Ukrainian command targeted the next Russian redoubt on the axis leading to Melitopol: the town of Novoprokopivka.

However, at the moment, all signs indicate that the Ukrainian units tasked with capturing Novoprokopivka, the 46th Airmobile Brigade and the 82nd Airborne Brigade, will not storm the village, which had only 800 inhabitants before the start of the war, but that they are trying to bypass the Russian garrison, capturing Verbove, another village to the east.

Map of the location of two settlements:

This tactic was successfully used by the Ukrainian marines in Urozhany, another village that the Russian army turned into a redoubt. Ukraine officially announced the liberation of this village on August 16, but it is located on the axis leading to the port city of Mariupol, about 90 kilometers east of Robotyny.

On Wednesday, Forbes noted that the Ukrainian Airborne Forces have begun conducting reconnaissance strikes on the Russian trenches near Vervovoy and are steadily advancing. This settlement, which would allow bypassing the Russian garrison in Novoprokopivka, is defended by a motorized infantry regiment, a brigade of Russian special forces and 3 reserve battalions.

For comparison, the Russians stationed seven regiments of their southern Ukrainian forces in Novoprokopivka.

• On the same topic: The Ukrainian offensive is gaining momentum in the south: the Airborne Forces have reached the outskirts of Verbovoy