The Ukrainian army reported on Monday intense fire from Russian troops near the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, a town that Ukrainian forces took control of during a counteroffensive last summer, AFP and Agerpres reported.

“In the Robotyno area, the enemy made 10 unsuccessful attempts to fire at the positions of the defense forces. The situation is changing here, the enemy is firing constantly,” said Dmytro Ligovy, the spokesperson of the Ukrainian military on this part of the front.

He also states that the Ukrainian army repulsed attacks carried out by “a significant number of armored vehicles”, but the Russians began to attack with “small assault groups and several armored vehicles”, as well as “actively operating” aircraft.

“These attempts at offensive actions are stopped, the enemies have been eliminated around Robotyny,” says the Ukrainian commander of this sector of the front, General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi.

DeepState, a Telegram channel close to the Ukrainian military, reported on Sunday evening that Russian forces had managed to break through Ukrainian defenses in Verbovo, a town located a few kilometers east of Robotyny. According to the Russian military blog Rîbar, Russian troops were supposed to enter the southern part of Robotin.

The site was returned to the Ukrainian army in August, an action that Kyiv then presented as a major success for the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which ultimately ended without significant territorial gains.

In the daily report of the Russians, there is no mention of the Robotina district

The new Russian offensive on the southern Ukrainian front began over the weekend when Russian forces took control of the town of Avdiyivka, about 150 kilometers northeast of Robotyny, after a four-month siege of the town.

On the Avdiyivka section of the front, “the Russians are regrouping, they have achieved tactical goals” and are likely to transfer units (from Avdiyivka) to other sections” of the front, the spokesman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmytro Ligovii also noted.

For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated in a daily report on the progress of the Ukrainian front that its troops “completely liberated the Avdiiv coke plant”, which borders the northern part of the city on an area of ​​340 hectares and which was the last fortified position of Ukrainian troops before their withdrawal from this area the front

The Russian army has taken more advantageous positions on the front in the Donetsk region, the Russian agency also claims, without mentioning the Robotine district.

The Ukrainians say they shot down two Russian fighter jets

During this time, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, visited the brigade defending the Kupyan Oblast, on the northeastern front, where Russian troops have also been on the offensive for several months. According to the president’s press release, Zelensky touched on “the supply of Ukrainian military units with equipment, ammunition and other urgent means”, in the context of an acute crisis of weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian army.

The new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Monday that Ukrainian anti-aircraft fighters shot down two Russian Su-34 and Su-35 fighter jets, “which attacked our positions with guided bombs. “

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