Brilliant Operation In Robotyne-Verbove Area: Ukrainian Forces Taking Occupiers In Tokmak In ‘Fire Pocket’
- 2.09.2023, 8:08
The Ukrainian army has made a breakthrough “with big potential”.
The Ukrainians are gradually forcing their way through the main Russian defensive line in the southeast, attacking the occupiers’ positions around Verbove (a settlement located 14 kilometers away from the liberated Robotyne).Thus, the Ukrainian army plans to “put” critical Russian logistics lines in the Tokmak area within the reach of its artillery.
This is stated in the material by the WSJ.
The journalists noted that Ukrainian troops’ piercing of Russian lines this week marks a “small move with big potential”.
“Each mile that Ukrainian forces advance puts their artillery closer to hitting Russian targets that so far have sat out of reach, including roads and train lines through the regional hub city Tokmak. Further beyond runs the M14 highway, which follows the country’s southeastern shore and which Russia relies on to move crucial supplies,” the authors state.
But if Ukrainian forces manage to cross minefields, trenches and cement blockades known as dragon’s teeth, they will have overcome impediments that Russia hopes are impassable. Many of Moscow’s best troops have been stationed on the front line.
Trent Telenko, a former official at the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency, said that Tokmak is the largest nearby target for Ukrainian troops to advance, but they may not launch an attack on the city.
If Kyiv’s troops can push the front line to about 9 kilometers outside Tokmak, Ukrainian artillery forces will be able to target its rail and road lines. Extending the front to within 9 kilometers “will make Tokmak useless as a road-rail transportation node,” said Telenko.
“Even without getting so close to a target, each mile of advance allows Ukraine’s longer-range ground-launched rockets to hit more Russian assets. Ukraine’s Western-made Himars and M270 mobile launchers fire projectiles with a range of at most about 80 kilometers,” stated in the material.
The M14 highway is about 50 miles south of Robotyne and Verbove, but the launchers must stay several miles back from the front for safety, so Ukraine’s recent gains still don’t yet put them in firing range of the Russian supply artery.
“Ukrainian military leaders hope that piercing the Russian front at Verbove will allow them to open a much larger breach and flood it with dozens of Western-made tanks and armored vehicles,” the journalists write.