Ukraine is sounding the alarm about a new Russian attack in Zaporizhzhia

Russia is preparing for new attacks on contested parts of the front line that winds through Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region and is crucial to Kiev’s logistics operations in the east, according to a Ukrainian military spokesman for forces in the war-torn country’s south.

Russia is preparing its forces for “new offensive operations” near the town of Orichiv in Zaporizhzhia and the contested village of Robotyne, Vladyslav Voloshyn, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces operating in Zaporizhzhia, told Ukrainian News.

“The enemy is stationing personnel there and is likely to intensify new attacks in a few days,” he said in a statement reported by domestic media.

Although Moscow has focused much of its efforts on tiring but steady gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, it has kept pressure on Ukrainian defenses further south in neighboring Zaporizhzhia. Both Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia – along with Luhansk and Kherson – were annexed by Russia, although it does not exercise full control over any of the four mainland regions, also called oblasts.

Russia simultaneously attacked Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region beginning in May 2024 and contended with Kiev’s surprise offensive in Kursk beginning in early August.

Robotyne, a small but significant village in Zaporizhzhia near Orichiv and the Russian-controlled center of Tokmak, was on the front lines for much of the war that lasted more than two and a half years. It was one of the few villages recaptured by Kiev during its 2023 counteroffensive.

Moscow announced in May this year that it had recaptured Robotyne. The popular Ukrainian war blog Deep State brought large parts of Robotyne under Russian control on Sunday.

“If they make a breakthrough, Russia will be able to fire on logistics routes connecting Zaporizhia with eastern Ukraine,” Voloshin said. “Russia will try to cut off our logistics at all costs.”

Dmytro Pelikh, a spokesman for Ukraine’s 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade fighting in the south, told U.S.-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty earlier this month that Russia would move armored vehicles toward the front lines in Zaporizhzhia.

Voloshin said in late September that Russia was “accumulating personnel” in the southeast.

The Ukrainian military reported in an early morning update on Sunday that Russia had “unsuccessfully” attacked Novodanivka, a settlement southeast of Orichiv and west of Mala Tokmachka.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces attacked several Ukrainian brigades operating around Mala Tokmachka and east of Orikhiv.