To face far weaker Russian Defences ahead. Ukraine says its forces are making gains in the south of the country and has recently expanded its units towards the strategic town of tokmak, which is a Logistical Centre for russian forces. Last week, ukraines military said it had captured the village of robotyne, in the zaporizhzhia region, amid a counteroffensive that is yielding incremental gains. Sources in the Ukrainian Army have confirmed the breakthrough to the bbc. An adviser to president zelenskyy, aleksander rodnyansky, explained the significance for kyiv s forces. Weve been waiting for this moment for quite some time. Weve been hoping that we would pierce through the Russian Defence line, the first defence line, which was the hardest to pierce through, if you believe Military Experts when they talk about it. So hopefully now, when we reach the second and the third lines of defence that the russians have established, those will be easier to essentially overcome. And perhaps hopeful
of men and machinery, and the claim this morning was that the village of staromaiorske had been liberated. the advances are relatively small we re talking about 5km but there are reports of heavy shelling. analysts are describing a full frontal assault towards the city of robotyne, which is further south east of zaporizhzhia. so, it is clear that ukraine is trying to make moves. now, there are unnamed sources unnamed us officials who see this as the start of a major thrust but ukraine, kyiv is trying to water that down a bit, saying any talk of the major push through is premature. but a push through is what ukraine needs. it needs to push through. it is hoping to, in this part of the front line, to effectively cut russia s occupied land corridor in half. what that would do is isolate tens of thousands of troops and bring crimea comfortably within its sights. and what kyiv have hopes