Such units had deployed piecemeal before but this represented a major infusion. The units now being sent into battle are mostly drawn from brigades that have been hastily trained and equipped in Nato countries over the past few months. Instead, the 10th had to be sent in to try to finish the work of the 9th. It had been held back as a second-echelon force, to take up the offensive when the first wave, mostly from the 9th Corps, reached the Russians’ main defensive line. Last Saturday, after seven gruelling weeks, the Ukrainian commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, deployed troops from his 10th Corps on the Orikhiv front. They have not even reached the major fortified lines that lie ahead of them. On all these three axes of attack, the Ukrainians are still battling through the Russians’ forward defences. The third prong of the counteroffensive, and so far the apparent priority, is in western Zaporizhzhia region, on the left bank of the Dnipro, where the Ukrainians are trying to break through south of the settlement of Orikhiv, and have now reached the village of Robotyne, about 15km to the south. On the southern front, where the Donetsk region meets Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrainians have been gradually advancing south from the town of Velyka Novosilka, one hard-won hamlet at a time, celebrating the capture of the latest, Staromaiorske, late last week, less than 8km from Ukrainian starting positions in June. Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region.
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