Ukrainians gain foothold in Robotyne, Ukraine comes under massive missile strike. What happened on the front line on August 15?

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In today's summary:

• Ukrainian troops have entered Robotyne and are advancing to the east of the settlement, threatening to semi-encircle enemy units.
• The loss of Urozhaine has created risks for the resilience of the Russian Priyutne – Staromaiorske defense line.
• The Ukrainian command is repositioning forces and weapons to the Lyman-Kupiansk sector.
• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is threatening Ukraine with the use of cluster munitions, despite Russia already using them since the beginning of the invasion.
• Ukrainian cities have come under a massive missile strike.
• In Dnipro, several missiles hit the grounds and the vicinity of the Pivdenmash machine-building plant.
• Moscow displays trophy military equipment at the Patriot Park; there are no Leopard tanks or Bradley infantry fighting vehicles among the exhibits.
• Some of the Russian weapon samples presented at the Army 2023 exhibition are puzzling at best.

The front line

The pro-Russian Voyenny Osvedomitel (“Military Informer”) Telegram channel reports that Ukrainian troops “have fought their way into Robotyne”. This settlement is the key vanguard stronghold of Russia’s defense south of Orikhiv. According to the channel, not only did Ukrainians secure their positions in the northern outskirts of the settlement, but they also sent a recon unit to its center, where it came under Russian artillery fire.

WarGonzo reports Ukrainian assault activity in the northern outskirts of Robotyne, coupled with a simultaneous advance from the southeast to “encircle the units of the Russian Armed Forces.”

Ukrainian military observer Konstantin Mashovets believes Robotyne’s fate is sealed, now that Ukrainian forces have gone around it from the east and gained control of the high ground to its northeast.

Rybar ventures to assume that Ukrainians advancing in a wedge east of Robotyne evidences the Ukrainian command's intention to semi-encircle the settlement and “launch an armor-reinforced strike in the direction of Tokmak”. Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky visited the headquarters of the 46th Airmobile Brigade in this sector.

On the Vremevsky Bulge, Mashovets reports the Russian group's extremely precarious position on the Priyutne— Staromaiorske defense line following the loss of Urozhaine.

Rybar continues to place Urozhaine in the grey zone, but Ukrainian vanguard units have already attempted an assault on Russian positions in Zavitne Bazhannia.

Ukrainians are reinforcing their positions and pulling forces to the Lyman-Kupiansk sector, where Russian troops are exerting strong pressure. According to Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi has ordered to prepare a multi-tier defense to prevent the enemy from gaining any ground.

Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu bragged at the 9th Moscow International Security Conference that Russia is waging war against the “collective West”, and cutting-edge NATO weapons and operational tactics “cannot provide combat advantage”. Shoigu also insisted that Ukraine's military resources are “almost entirely depleted” and explained European arms supplies to Ukraine as a ploy to “make space in the market for American military products.” Unexpectedly, he also cited the liberation of Russian prisoners of war among the priorities of the “special military operation” [the official euphemism for the war in Ukraine].

Shelling and sabotage

The Ukrainian high command reports the destruction of 16 cruise missiles. The Russian side launched a total of 28 such missiles, including four Kh-22s, twenty Kh-101/Kh-505s, and four Kalibr missiles. Yet again, none of the supersonic Kh-22 missiles were shot down; according to Air Forces Command spokesman Yurii Ihnat, only a Patriot system can do it. Furthermore, Ukraine registered eight launches of guided anti-aircraft S-300/S-400 missiles [adapted to a surface-to-surface role — The Insider] targeting the Dnipropetrovsk Region and Zaporizhzhia.

Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi reported missiles hitting an apartment block and a preschool playground. The attack claimed no lives but caused damage to several residential units and the preschool building. Subsequent updates reported 19 lightly injured, including a ten-year-old child.

Rybar theorizes about the missiles targeting the LOTRA plant, where Ukraine supposedly stores Western munitions and upgrades its fighter jets to carry cruise missiles.

The Regional Military Administration of Dnipro reports the shelling of an enterprise and a resulting fire. It appears that the damaged facility is the Pivdenmash plant: an eyewitness’ video captured at least four hits sustained by the facility. A sports center was also damaged.

Lutsk mayor Ihor Polishchuk reported a strike on an industrial facility that killed three people and injured three more. Later, the search and rescue team pulled another victim, a local man, from under the rubble.

In the Ivano-Frankivsk Region, missile fragments damaged an apartment block. No injuries were reported.

A missile strike on Kramatorsk in the Donetsk Region killed a man and injured two more. Launched from an S-300 system, the missiles hit a food warehouse.

Losses

Moscow's Patriot Park is hosting an exhibition of captured Ukrainian equipment. The exhibits include a French AMX-10RC armored reconnaissance vehicle, a Swedish CV9040C infantry fighting vehicle, a XA-180 armored personnel carrier, an Australian Bushmaster armored vehicle, and its British counterparts: Husky TSV, Saxon AT105, and Mastiff PPV. German Leopard tanks, whose purported destruction the Russian MoD is so fond of bragging about, aren't on the menu.

Moreover, Russian armed forces appear to have failed, so far, to evacuate even a single US-manufactured M2A2 Bradley vehicle, contrary to the video in which they threaten to “go get an MT-LB and tow away” an abandoned American vehicle.

The video’s fans have even come up with fan art with an anthropomorphic personification of a Russian MT-LB multi-purpose armored vehicle, but the threats seem to remain fruitless.

Commenting on the exhibition, Voyenny Osvedomitel is dissatisfied with the only captured CV9040C infantry fighting vehicle being sent to the museum instead of military research labs for tests.

In the Kherson Region, the Ukrainians destroyed two launchers of a rare Russian S-300V4 air defense missile system and damaged two radar stations with HIMARS-launched GMLRS rockets. The strike can be considered a “tit-for-tat”, with Russians recently hitting a Ukrainian S-300 battery.

Arms supplies

Sweden is to allocate a 314-million-dollar military aid package to Ukraine, according to Defense Minister Pal Jonson. The package will include munitions and parts for the CV90 infantry mobility vehicles, as well as munitions for Stridsvagn 122 tanks and Archer artillery systems.

Ukraine will also receive several CORTEX Typhoon C-UAS systems from Norway. A CORTEX Typhoon is a remotely controlled counter-drone unit with reconnaissance capabilities and machine guns.

A recent video documents an attack on a US-manufactured Stryker armored fighting vehicle with Lancet loitering munitions. This may be the first evidence of the use of the Stryker in the combat zone. Furthermore, a German Marder 1A3 infantry fighting vehicle was noticed near Robotyne. Both vehicles are known to be fielded by the 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, therefore attesting to this unit's engagement in combat.

We’re keeping an eye on the new samples of military equipment and weapons presented at the Army 2023 international military forum.

Andrei Tarasenko, the author of the Telegram channel Tanks. History and Modernity. Btvt.info, is peeved by the new Т-90М tank with a “king-size cope cage” and a wide anti-drone net thrown on top. He calls the thermal camouflage cover over the tank completely useless when coupled with a large, perfectly visible structure above it. He explains this poorly thought-out combo by the ad hoc approach of the Russian military industry, where decision-makers hardly take time to consider if their innovations will actually do well in combat. In turn, Voyenny Osvedomitel points out that getting out of this tank in an emergency could be problematic.

Tarasenko also slammed the “absurd” concept of the BT-3F armored personnel carrier, the configuration of the Osminog system for assault and landing motor boats, the “decades-old” PRP-4 artillery reconnaissance vehicle, and the “downgraded” version of the T-72 tank under the designation BMPT-72.

Admittedly, Andrei Tarasenko picked out several noteworthy exhibits: the 152-mm Malva wheeled self-propelled gun and the enhanced version of the BTR-82A armored personnel carrier.

Sergei Shoigu threatened to retaliate against the American supplies of cluster munitions to Ukraine with the use of similar weapons from the Russian side. He emphasized that Russia has purportedly refrained from using them in combat, which is a blatant lie, as proven by international agencies and investigators, Ukrainian government agencies, journalists, and eyewitnesses from the first days of the full-scale invasion.

For the principal developments of August 14, read our previous digest: Russians pull out of Urozhaine, war bloggers point fingers, smokescreens over Crimean bridge. What happened on the front line on August 14?