Ukraine retook Rabotino in a counter-offensive last summer, and is now trying to hold on to the village against heavy Russian fire because of its symbolic value.
Ukrainian soldiers spent hours hiding in trenches as artillery exploded around them, then rushed to an armored personnel carrier for cover. A small drone followed, crashed into the back of the vehicle and exploded.
“All I saw was flashes of light,” Ukrainian Sergeant Oleksandr said of what happened when his armored vehicle was attacked by a Russian drone. The attack left Oleksandr and his comrades injured, but no one was killed.
Fighting on the flat ground along the front line in Zaporizhzhia province, where Oleksandr's armored vehicle was ambushed, has been fierce for the past 10 months in two stages.
Initially, Ukraine was on the offensive and recaptured Rabotino in a counteroffensive last summer. Now Ukrainian units must defend against relentless Russian attacks on the “spoils of war”.
Experts say Ukraine is adopting a “hold, consolidate, attack” strategy. They are trying to hold their defense lines in the southeast, replenishing their units, and launching long-range drone attacks on oil and gas facilities and military logistics inside Russia.
Location of the village of Rabotino in Zaporizhzhia province. Graphics: RYV
In Zaporizhzhia, this tactic meant defending a 15-kilometer-deep arc into Russian-controlled territory that Ukrainian forces carved out during last summer’s counteroffensive. At the southern tip of the arc is the village of Rabotino, which Ukraine recaptured at the height of the offensive and then stalled.
Failing to achieve further breakthroughs, Ukraine has allowed Russian forces to maintain positions strong enough to counterattack. Ukrainian units entrenched in the Zaporizhzhia arc are under attack from three sides and face a dilemma.
The pressure they are under would ease if they withdrew, but it would signal a symbolic setback in the conflict, as Ukrainian forces abandoned an area they had held at high cost in personnel and equipment.
Some Ukrainian soldiers who have just returned from the area said Russia has been shelling the area heavily. The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrsky, said on March 29 that Russia had fired six times as many shells as Ukraine along the 1,000-kilometer frontline.
US weapons provided for last year's counteroffensive, including Stryker armored vehicles, now help protect Ukrainian soldiers from Russian artillery fire as they hold out instead of advancing.
However, the US $60 billion aid package for Ukraine is still stuck in the US Congress . The $300 million aid package announced in mid-March only meets Ukraine's short-term needs.
Ukrainian soldiers in trenches around the village of Rabotino on February 21. Photo: Reuters
The village of Rabotino, which had a population of 500 before the war, is now a ruin like the cities of Bakhmut and Avdeevka.
US officials have repeatedly expressed concern that Ukraine is trying to hang on too long in such locations, wasting soldiers and ammunition to hold ruined neighborhoods with little strategic value.
But for Ukraine, the area around the village of Rabotino is still worth defending, at least for now.
“Symbolic value becomes strategic,” said Yuri Sak, a former adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister. “Protecting the gains of the counteroffensive is important for morale and popular support.”
According to Mr. Sak, the fighting has inflicted heavier losses on the attacking Russian units than on the defending Ukrainian forces. "As long as the situation continues like this, the position of continuing to hold out will be supported," Mr. Sak said. "This is a war, so casualties are inevitable on both sides."
Russian forces are attacking along the entire 1,000-kilometer front line. The Russian army has enjoyed advantages in ammunition, personnel and air power for months.
Ruins in the village of Rabotino in August 2023. Photo: Reuters
Since then, Russia has been using coordinated offensive tactics of infantry attacks and air strikes in seven positions along the front, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
In the northeast, Russian forces pushed through pine forests toward the city of Kupyansk on the Oskol River, seeking to reverse the gains made by Ukraine in a lightning counteroffensive in the fall of 2022.
In the rugged Donbass region dotted with coal mines and factories, Russia has deployed four offensives and sought to exploit the opening created by Ukraine’s abandonment of Avdeevka. Ukraine is holding out at the western front of Avdeevka, but Russia has steadily taken control of more villages near the city this month.
In Kherson Oblast, Russia has repeatedly driven Ukrainian troops from outposts on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, near the oblast’s capital Kherson. Ukraine can only supply its troops there by boat, and their foothold there is precarious.
The situation on the Ukrainian battlefield. Graphics: Washington Post
Ukrainian officials claim the fighting there has been “worth it, as tens of thousands of Russian servicemen have been killed or wounded.” However, Washington has expressed skepticism.
“I think the Biden administration is disappointed,” said Evelyn Farkas, director of the US-based McCain Institute. “It’s unclear whether the decisions by the Ukrainian military were purely military or influenced by political pressure.”
Ukrainian soldiers at Rabotino suffered somewhat fewer casualties when they went on the defensive. Russian soldiers had to leave their trenches to attack, while Ukrainian soldiers fought in their fortifications.
Private Oleksandr believes that if Kiev withdraws its troops here, Ukrainian soldiers will eventually have to fight in other positions under similar conditions. "We need to defend every inch of land," he said.
Nguyen Tien (According to AFP, Reuters, All Sides )
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