The recapture of the settlement Robotin, this week from Kiev, paves the way for a Ukrainian counter-offensive into occupied southern Ukraine and Russian-annexed Crimea, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Wednesday.

“Fortified on the slopes of Robotine, we open the road to (the southern cities of) Tokmak, and at last to Melitopolis and the (administrative) borders of Crimea”, said Dmytro Kouleba, before French diplomats during a speech in Paris. The Ukrainian official also met with Emmanuel Macron.

As he pointed out, the Battle of Robotine was particularly long and hard, as it is one of “the most difficult sectors of the front”, listing the Russian planes, helicopters and drones “dominating the sky”. or even the very dense minefields.

For Kouleba, this settlement of a few hundred inhabitants before the war is “strategically important”.

Robotine is on a road that descends south to Tokmak (population 30,000 before the war) and Melitopolis (population 150,000 before the war) before reaching the Crimea. Tokmak and Melitopolis are among the main cities of the occupied side of the Zaporizhia regioncities were captured by Russia during the first weeks of the invasion in early 2022.

One of the aims of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, which began last June, is to cut off the unity of the territories held by the Russian army, which form a land bridge, watered by the Sea of ​​Azov, connecting annexed Crimea with Russia.

This area is important for the logistics of Russian supplies.

Kouleba told French diplomats during his trip to Paris that a first unit responsible for the recapture of Robotine had been decimated. A group of 31 men were then trained to launch targeted operations against Russian positions. These men had to crawl for hours through minefields and then hold positions until reinforcements arrived.

The recapture of the settlement takes place after almost three months of counterattack during which there was limited progressin terms of square kilometers, to the extent that voices were heard in the West questioning Ukraine’s ability to achieve its goals.

With the Robotine, the Ukrainians hope to make it difficult for the formidable Russian defense lines, consisting of anti-tank traps, minefields and trenches.

The Russian army has not yet announced its withdrawal from Robotine, however, speaking of heavy fighting in the sector and on the outskirts of the neighboring Verbove region.

“The Robotine-Verbove gray zone will become a mass grave for the armed forces of Ukraine,” Moscow-appointed official in the Zaporizhia region Yevgeny Balitsky wrote on Telegram.