Ukrainian forces, slowly advancing after breaching Russia’s first lines of defense in the occupied south, turned their attention to storming another heavily defended part of the territory.
In recent days, military analysts said, the Ukrainian Army has been fighting to break Russian positions near a village called Verbove, about six miles east of the village of Robotyne, which its fighters retook. last week.
The Black Bird Group, a volunteer organization that analyzes satellite imagery and social media content from the battlefield, said Monday that Ukrainian soldiers had cleared obstacles to reach Russian infantry fighting positions outside Verbove.
But analysts say that does not mean they have secured the territory, in an offensive that has met stiff resistance and made progress in small steps and at a high cost in casualties and equipment.
For their part, Ukrainian military officials refrained from making any sweeping claims.
Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Army in the south, said national television that the Russian trenches and dugouts now facing the Kyiv forces near Verbove were “not as strong” as those in the first line of defense. But he said Russian minefields would complicate Ukraine’s advance, and military analysts suggested Moscow may have bolstered its defenses outside Robotyne with more troops.
Ukrainian forces enjoyed surprising victories early in the war by capturing Kyiv, the capital, and repelling Russian forces at the end of March last year. Later, in September, they were able to drive Russian soldiers from the vast lands they had seized in the northeast of the country and again in the south two months later.
But this counteroffensive, which began almost three months ago, is another matter. With the attack long anticipated, Russian forces had plenty of time to dig in, build barriers and lay mines, and turn vast swathes of the landscape deadly in one fell swoop.
The Ukrainian military aims to regain land in the south and east of the country. To the south, its goal is to reach the Sea of Azov and drive a wedge into Russian-occupied territory, and its main effort so far is in the direction of the city of Melitopol.
Last week’s recapture of Robotyne marked a significant moment in Ukraine’s efforts to cut off Moscow’s supply lines to occupied Crimea, but Kyiv’s forces still have a long way to go. Now, their push from Robotyne east to Verbove aims to further breach Russian defense layers, two military analysts, Michael Kofman and Rob Lee, wrote in a paper published on Monday.
Expanding that breach, they said, is critical because “a narrow advance could leave its forces vulnerable to counterattacks on the flanks.” A wider gap would also allow Ukrainian forces to bring more equipment and personnel to support their advance south.
A strategic target in this push appears to be the city of Tokmak, a road-and-rail hub about 15 miles south of Robotyne. In order to reach that city, Ukrainian forces will have to completely destroy the defenses around Verbove and then breach additional layers.
That suggests a slow and tedious battle that could last months, with the possibility of heavy casualties on both sides.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said he was visiting the front lines again — the latest in a series of trips that appear to be aimed at boosting the morale of troops waging a bloody, slow-moving battle.
Mr. Zelensky said he visited combat brigades fighting near the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured in the spring after nearly a year of fighting. Ukrainian fighters managed to regain some land around it.
His office said the Ukrainian leader discussed “problematic issues and needs of the units,” among them the provision of artillery shells and air-defense missiles.
Late on Monday, in his nightly video addressMr. Zelensky said, “It is very important to support our fighters, communicate with brigade and battalion commanders,” and he reportedly visited 11 brigades in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions that day.
The topic of ammunition also came up during his visit to troops in Donetsk on Monday, according to Mr. Zelensky. This said that the commanders mentioned the growing need for drones and “anti-drone weapons, inadequate management of units and lack of certain types of ammunition.”
