In the Donetsk region the situation with fortifications is very difficult.
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The military personnel working there emphasize this to LIGA.net.
Nobody is building anything. And there’s nowhere else,” says a fighter with the call sign Malysh.
His brigade defends the Avdeevsky direction, where the Russians managed to make significant progress in April. The first line of defense of Ukraine in those areas where the Russians are advancing was completely destroyed – by artillery and aerial bombs, the military man says.
In turn, the defense lines, which were discussed for months, did not fulfill their functions and did not contain the Russians in the Kharkov region. Solomiya Bobrovskaya (“Voice”), a representative of the Council’s defense committee, told LIGA.net about this.
Eurosolidarity announced the “fictitious construction” of fortifications.
The authorities delayed the allocation of funds for the construction of fortifications for at least six months. It was only in February that they began to give something, when the military declared the need last summer. Then regional administrations were caught distributing funds for the construction of fortifications due to suspicious shell companies. Then they discovered fictitious construction,” says a statement from EU party member Vladimir Ariev.
Since the beginning of the year, the government has allocated 38 billion UAH for the construction of defensive lines, these are the figures as of May 7.
Back in December 2023, among the important areas for the construction of fortifications, the Cabinet of Ministers singled out Avdeevsky, Maryinsky and Kharkov regions: namely Kupyansk-Liman. As of May, the greatest advances of Russians are in the Avdeevka and Kharkov region.
However, they did not have time to build defense structures in full in the Kharkov region, senior lieutenant of the 47th brigade Nikolai Melnik tells LIGA.net:
We saw that there were no advanced positions at all. There is some unfinished construction here and there. The same “dragon’s teeth” lay next to the tracks. The defense line was unfinished.
According to him, the soldiers “had to dig in where they had to.” The planned line of defense did not correspond to the terrain. The defense forces were damaged, and the enemy was able to create a bridgehead for the offensive.
We repeated Avdeevka’s mistake,” says Melnyk. “Then we said: we need defense lines outside the city.” The ground forces reported that everything was already there. And as a result, the military had to retreat because there was nowhere to hide.
Analysts from the OSINT project DeepState also spoke about poor preparation. Analysts showed pictures of unfinished fortifications, in particular in the village of Liptsy, towards which the Russians are now moving.
The total length of the front as of May 19 is 3 thousand 750 km. The Ministry of Defense explains to LIGA.net off the record: up to 10 thousand km of non-explosive fencing should be created on this line. The implementation process is controlled by the Ministry of Defense, and the managers are military-civil administrations.
Fortification buildings in a good version have three lines of defense. It is impossible to build serious fortifications on the first line under Russian shelling and aerial bombs. They retreat to the second line when the enemy squeezes the Defense Forces out of the first, the military explains to LIGA.net. – The third line is to provide the first two with everything they need.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.