'Kyiv's gains in south pave way to Crimea'

KYIV, September 1 ------ Ukraine's top diplomat said that recapturing the village of Robotyne earlier this week was a strategic victory that paved the way for its forces to push deeper into Russian positions in the south toward Crimea.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba's comments came as Kyiv announced that at least two people had been killed in the "most powerful" aerial attack on the Ukrainian capital in weeks, and Russia reported a drone strike on military aircraft in its northwest. Kyiv launched a counteroffensive in June after stockpiling Western-supplied weapons and building up assault battalions. Progress has been costly and staggered, but Ukrainian forces announced they had pushed through key Russian defensive lines with the liberation of Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. "Having entrenched on the flanks of Robotyne, we are opening the way to Tokmak and, eventually, Melitopol and the administrative border with Crimea," Kuleba said during an earlier visit to Paris. The Kremlin has downplayed the offensive, and Yevgeny Balitsky, its official in charge of Zaporizhzhia, which Russia claims as its own, warned that territory beyond Robotyne would be a "mass grave for Ukraine's armed forces."

In Kyiv, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter heard at least three explosions at about 5 a.m. as part of the countrywide barrage of 28 cruise missiles and 16 attack drones. Military officials described the attack as "the most powerful" to hit the city since the spring, and authorities said two employees of an infrastructure facility were killed by falling debris in the Shevchenkivsky district.

In the United States, the White House claimed that Russia was in secret, active talks with North Korea to acquire a range of munitions and supplies for its offensive. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Russian President Vladimir Putin and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un had exchanged letters pledging to increase bilateral cooperation following Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's recent visit to the North's capital Pyongyang. The US, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan said at the United Nations that such an arms deal would violate Security Council resolutions Russia itself has endorsed. Kirby also said that despite its denials, North Korea supplied infantry rockets and missiles to Russia last year for use by the private mercenary group Wagner.

Its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in Russia last week, two months after leading a short-lived mutiny against the country's military leadership that rocked Putin's authority. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday told reporters that investigators had not ruled out any cause for the crash, including foul play. These come as Ukraine has been stepping up drone attacks inside Russia. It launched a wave of strikes overnight, targeting an airport near the Estonian border and the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, Russian authorities said. The attack on Pskov airport, roughly 700 kilometers (more than 400 miles) from the border with Ukraine, marks the latest strike far from Ukraine's borders since Kyiv vowed to "return" the conflict to Russia in July. State news agency TASS, citing emergency services, said four Ilyushin Il-76 heavy transport planes were damaged in the Pskov attack, while the Emergency Situations Ministry said at least two aircraft had caught fire.

The Pskov region was previously targeted by drones in May. Authorities in the Bryansk region near the Ukrainian border, the southern Oryol region and the Kaluga and Ryazan regions, southwest and southeast of Moscow, all reported that drones had been destroyed or downed. Air defenses also destroyed a drone "heading for Moscow," the city's mayor wrote on social media, adding there were no casualties or damage caused. TASS reported that Moscow's Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports had been temporarily closed. Moscow and other Russian regions have been targeted by almost daily drone strikes since Kyiv vowed this summer to "return" the conflict to Russia.

Source: manilatimes.net