Ukraine’s Armed Forces Claim to Have Entered Rabotino, Balitsky Says Russian Troops Occupied Defense Lines

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Maliar said that AFU soldiers had entered the Rabotino village located in Zaporozhye region. The acting governor of the Russian Zaporozhye region, Yevgeny Balitsky, claims that the Russian military “have occupied quite advantageous defense lines near Rabotino”. At the same time, he did not inform on the status of the village. “Soldiers of the 47th brigade of the AFU entered Rabotino village with a fight, organized the evacuation of civilians on Bradley BMPs,” Maliar wrote in her Telegram channel. According to her, the Ukrainian military are now continuing their attempts to gain a foothold in the village, which is under the constant shelling. The deputy head of the Ukrainian military department specified that “heavy fighting continues” in the village. She also published a video of the Ukrainian military entering the settlement. The acting governor of Zaporozhye region, Yevgeny Balitsky, did not confirm the loss of control over the village. In his Telegram channel, he said that the Russian Armed Forces “occupied quite advantageous lines of defense in the Rabotino area”. “The enemy assault group was completely destroyed near Rabotino. After that, a new group took the same route, but suffered losses and retreated in the northern direction,” the official added. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, recently the Russian military “repelled 5 attacks by units of the 82nd Air Assault Brigade from the strategic reserve of the AFU”. On 21 August, the chairman of the Zaporozhye public movement “We are together with Russia”, Vladimir Rogov, reported that the Ukrainian armed forces had deployed an additional unit from the strategic reserve of the 10th Army Corps to the Rabotino village. According to him, several strongholds in the village of Verbovoye (18 km east of Rabotino) were abandoned by the Russian forces “in order to preserve the lives of soldiers”. Rabotino is a village of less than 500 people before the outbreak of the military conflict. It has been under Russian control since March 2022. The constant fighting near the village is explained by the fact that it is located on the motorway from Orekhov to Tokmak, followed by Melitopol. It seems, that the capital of Russia’s Zaporozhye region is one of the main targets of the Ukrainian offensive. Due to the capture of this city, as the Western media writes, the AFU will be able to “cut” the Russian troop group, block the land corridor to Crimea and launch an offensive on the peninsula.