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Today, the biggest news comes from Ukraine.
Three and a half years of war have proved that defensive lines are still a vital part of defending territory. Now, new defenses are being constructed at an unprecedented pace, with designs built from experience and tailored to the reality of the modern battlefield.
One of Russia's primary strategic goals in the war is to capture the entirety of the Donetsk Oblast. Currently, they control 70% of Donetsk oblast, but the remaining 30% is protected by fortified cities. The fortress belt is a 50 kilometer-long chain of 4 large cities from Slovyansk, through Kramatorsk, with several smaller towns, and settlements running along the H-20 highway, including Druzhkivka down to Kostyantynivka. It is a major logistical hub in the region, with significant fortifications that have been reinforced and improved since April 2014.
Russia’s main efforts on the eastern flank of Pokrovsk also serve as a launching pad to swing northeast and move toward the line from the west. From the north, Russia tries to attack Lyman to be able to move towards Sloviansk. And from the east, Russians are trying to approach the belt through Chasiv Yar and Siversk. However, these efforts are moving at a crawling pace, and various military analysts doubt Russia’s ability to take this in force, explaining why the current Russian demands for a ceasefire include Ukraine having to give up this fortress belt, along with the rest of the Ukrainian Donetsk Oblast.
This shows that even Russia has to concede that the fortress cities belt in northern Donetsk has become extremely effective. Therefore, Ukraine is expanding this line of defense, stretching it from Zaporizhia to Kharkiv along the over 2,000 kilometer-long frontline.
The planned defense structure will be three lines deep, with the first consisting of minefields, anti-tank ditches, and dragon’s teeth anti-tank obstacles to stop armored assaults and force Russian infantry to dismount and clear the obstacles, while hardened concrete bunkers dispersed in kill zones and drones take them under fire.
The second line consists of trenches with overhead protection, underground shelters, and machine gun nests. These defense points serve as protection while allowing the defenders to engage the advancing infantry forces.
The third line is a reserve, in case the enemy breaks through the first two lines, with artillery and mortar positions zeroed in on all three of them to provide fire support. However, Russians are running out of tanks and armor, and relying more on meat-wave attacks using only infantry with FPV drone support, which is why Ukraine had to change its approach to defense line construction.
The new defense structures are much smaller than the previous strongpoints so they can be adequately manned with Ukraine’s reduced number of available troops. They are also built with overhead protection to shield the soldiers from FPV drones, drone-dropped munitions, and shrapnel. This is increasingly important because Russians are using fiber-optic drones more and more with extended ranges. These drones cannot be jammed by Ukrainian electronic warfare systems, so infantrymen need to be physically shielded from this new aerial threat instead.
Protective nets are also being used on the frontline and over logistics routes, which hinder Russian drone’s ability to fly close and target individual soldiers or vehicles. The latest fortification design allows Ukraine to disperse forces and cover more area and monitor the 2,000 kilometer frontline more easily and effectively with fewer soldiers. The new design ensures that the fortifications are harder to spot and destroy with one strike, while the smaller size also makes them easier to camouflage.
Smaller strongpoints also allow for more effective kill zones, because it allows Ukrainians to create more specific crossfires and lure Russians into minefields. The defenders can also shift positions more quickly and rotate to other fortifications to reinforce them, if needed.
Overall, Russia’s goal to annex the rest of the Donetsk oblast will depend on the fortress belt. The summer offensive failed to achieve any substantial breakthrough, and with the current pace of the attacks, it would take years and hundreds of thousands of casualties to siege these modern castles. West of the fortress belt, new defense lines with the latest design will make it even more difficult for the Russians to conduct offensive operations. Ukraine is successfully adapting to the new era of war, taking advantage not only of the geographical features but also of man-made fortifications as well.
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