Ukrainian forces have made small gains over the weekend along multiple points of the frontline as “heavy rain” threatens to slow down Kyiv’s counteroffensive.
Geolocated images showed Ukrainian infantry roughly 300 metres north of Novoprokopivka, south of Robotyne, which is the deepest they have been seen inside Russian-occupied territory as part of that attack.
This line has emerged as Ukraine’s main axis of the counteroffensive in the past month, though progress slowed after the liberation of Robotyne at the end of August.
The Ukrainian General Staff also claimed on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had achieved “partial success” near Bakhmut, though that remains unconfirmed.
It comes as “heavy rain” was reported in both the Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia, which is the region in which Robotyne is located.
At the start of September, the-then top-ranking US military officer General Mark Milley said he believed Ukraine had about “30 to 45 days' worth of fighting weather left”.
One Russian military blogger claimed that “weather conditions have deteriorated very much” in the past few weeks, adding that there were “no significant enemy movements … due to poor visibility”.
Ukrainian eastern group of forces spokesperson Captain Ilya Yevlash admitted that the poor weather, and the subsequent low visibility, may affect drone and aviation but it will not halt the counteroffensive, according to comments published by the Institute for the Study of War.
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