The Ukrainian armed forces have made progress in their counteroffensive in the western Zaporizhzhya region, said a report by the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) published on Friday.
Ukrainian troops made "tactically significant advances," the Washington-based institute said. Photographs showed that the Ukrainians had reached the northern outskirts of the settlement of Robotyne, which lies some 10 kilometres south of the town of Orichiv.
The report spoke of intensified Russian attacks near Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, which was liberated from the Ukrainians last year.
The British Ministry of Defence in turn reported that Russia was sending more troops to Zaporizhzhya in the face of Ukrainian pressure. The Russians had likely moved airborne troops from the Kherson region to the area around Orikhiv, the ministry said in its regular intelligence update.
The redeployment weakens Russia near the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, where it is increasingly beset by Ukrainian amphibious assaults.
