Ukrainian soldiers in the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia province.
CNN on September 7 quoted sources from the front line in southern Ukraine showing that the country's forces continued to advance amid continuous artillery, mortar and rocket attacks from both sides.
Geolocated footage shows a wasteland of shell craters, abandoned trenches and destroyed military equipment in the area between Robotyne, Verbove and Novoprokopivka, three key villages that help Ukraine advance closer to Tokmak, a key Russian defense hub.
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In the village of Robotyne, Ukrainian forces took control at great cost, but opened the way for forces to advance towards Tomak, according to a soldier with the alias Bruce, commander of the 47th brigade reconnaissance unit.
According to this soldier, the route to the Sea of Azov will then open, cutting off Russian soldiers in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Meanwhile, Yevgeniy Balitsky, a Russian-appointed official in the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia, said Russian forces had inflicted “significant firepower losses” on the Ukrainian side, including losses of soldiers and equipment. A Russian military blogger also said some Ukrainian attacks had been repelled.
TASS news agency reported on September 7 that Russian air defense forces had intercepted 11 rockets from Ukraine's high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) and shot down 41 enemy drones in the previous 24 hours.
Ukraine has not commented on the above information from Russia.
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New Ukrainian Defense Minister Takes Office
The Kyiv Independent news site reported on September 7 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky first introduced new Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and assigned tasks to this official.
The main priorities assigned by the president to the new defense secretary include strengthening the department's central role in the defense sector, putting soldiers first, expanding international partnerships, combating corruption, particularly through digitalization, and reforming the military according to NATO standards.
"Ukrainian soldiers are the top priority of the defense forces. A new philosophy of values is needed for Ukrainian soldiers: people are not consumer goods," President Zelensky said.
The leader noted that bureaucratic procedures that take up too much of soldiers' time and energy must be simplified or eliminated. These efforts should also include digitizing the administrative apparatus.
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In addition, he directed the army to take advantage of the experience to improve soldier training in medical skills and combat support.
Efforts to restore the grain corridor
According to TASS on September 7, the Turkish Ministry of Defense said that the government is ready to facilitate the process of reaching a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine.
"We are closely following the ongoing events between Russia and Ukraine, which pose a serious threat to the security of our region and the entire world. We affirm our readiness to play a positive and supportive role in ensuring a ceasefire and stable peace, as well as providing comprehensive assistance in alleviating the humanitarian crisis," according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.
The agency reiterated that Türkiye maintains contacts with Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations to revive the Black Sea grain deal, which expired on July 17.
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"We hope that after the meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on September 4, there will be positive steps to continue this initiative, which will greatly contribute to stabilizing global food prices and demonstrate that any crisis can be resolved with goodwill and dialogue," the Turkish Defense Ministry said.
In another development, The Kyiv Independent reported that Ukraine has officially asked Turkey to restore the grain export corridor without Russia's participation.
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