Since penetrating Moscow’s southern defensive line, Ukraine has made substantial inroads into Russian-controlled territory. According to Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, the Ukrainian forces are now between the first and second defensive lines.
Russia had time to mine most of the terrain and set up well-defended positions thanks to the delay in the counteroffensive. Russia’s defensive lines must be broken if Ukraine transitions from a breakthrough struggle at the tactical level to mobile warfare and operational exploitation.
Ukraine’s hard-fought victory will be doubled by this when it cuts through the land bridge and destroys as many Russian forces as possible.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), fighting in the disputed southern Ukrainian province of Zaporizhzhia may have “broken through the most difficult line of Russian fortifications.” Experts and Ukrainian authorities have speculated that Ukraine has advanced rapidly toward Russian soldiers in Zaporizhzhia the week after this report was published, with the captured city of Melitopol and the Sea of Azov in its sights.
On Thursday, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister, indicated significant progress had been made, especially in the direction of Novodanylivka and Novoprokopivka.
According to the White House, Ukrainian forces have made “some substantial progress” in Zaporizhzhia, penetrating the Russians’ secondary line of defense. Hanna Maliar, the deputy defense minister of Ukraine, mentioned two towns in Zaporizhzhia. John Kirby, a White House National Security Council spokesperson, informed the press that the Ukrainians had made progress against the second line of Russian fortifications.
Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces have attacked multiple settlements in Zaporizhzhia. In response, Ukraine’s General Staff has announced that the country’s Defense Forces will continue an offensive operation in the Melitopol direction, fortify the borders they have already reached, and take counterbattery resistance measures.
Ukrainian soldiers “repelled three strikes” from Ukrainian battalions in the disputed Zaporizhzhia communities of Robotyne and Verbove, south of the city of Orikhiv, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
