This is from the American news network CNBC yesterday.
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"They also achieved something significant weeks ago, breaking through a major first line of Russian defenses near the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region, and are looking to push southward toward Tokmak.
If they can reach the heavily defended city that acts as a transport and logistics hub for Russian forces, they stand a chance of breaking supply lines to Russian-occupied Melitopol and Crimea further south.
“The area we’re all looking at, the one that makes the most strategic difference, is the Orikhiv-Tokmak axis,” Clarke noted. Orikhiv lies to the north of fighting hot spot Robotyne while Tokmak lies south of the village.
“If they can get to Tokmak and take it, and I think they probably will, then they do achieve something. They’ll be able to bring their artillery and rocket artillery close enough to bombard Crimea almost at will,” he said."
“At the end of this offensive, although they almost certainly won’t have reached the coast, which originally we thought they might be able to, if they can put Crimea at risk all the time, just to make it unsafe for the Russians to use it as a big military base ... then that will be an enormous political bargaining chip, for any negotiations they might go into next year,” Clarke said.
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So there is finally an admission that the Great Ukrainian Offensive of 2023 may not actually reach the sea of Azov. But its still an absolute certainty that they will make it all the way to Tokmak from Robotyne
real soon. Apparently with the "breach" in the Russian defense line, all they have to do is walk there.
As well, rather than talking about total Ukrainian victory, now its all about getting bargaining chips to negotiate the end of the war next year.
Since the Israel thing broke out, these people talking to the western media about Ukraine don't even seem to be taking it seriously anymore. ISW's coverage of the war now just repeats every single day nearly the same phrase that there has been progress in Robotyne and Bakhmut sectors.
