As of: March 8, 2024, 10:03 a.m
By: Nail Akkoyun
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Press
Split
Ukraine wants to stop Russia with trenches and anti-tank trenches.
But work on the defenses is making slow progress.
Donetsk - In the Ukraine war, the fighting is becoming increasingly difficult for Kiev's troops.
While the Ukrainian army was able to achieve successes last year, this year it had to withdraw from the embattled small town of Avdiivka - and is also in defense mode elsewhere.
Now Ukraine wants to arm itself for a major Russian offensive.
With the help of trenches and anti-tank trenches, the Ukrainian troops want to make it more difficult for the Russian enemy to attack. They have to “dig, entrench and build themselves,” officer Maksym Zhorin told the
Wall Street Journal
.
The deputy commander of the 3rd Ukrainian assault brigade warned of Russia's impending offensive: Putin's army had "accumulated enough forces and resources to put pressure on various axes at once."
Russia advances in Donbass: Ukraine retreats to “active defense”.
Given the delay in further US military aid, Ukraine must conserve ammunition.
The delivery of hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, which are to be delivered to Kiev thanks to a Czech initiative, comes at just the right time.
But the Ukrainians still have to fight with the means that they currently have at their disposal.
Therefore, the soldiers entrench themselves and try what is known as “active defense” – a tactic that seems obvious.
Ukrainian soldiers in a trench near the front line in the Donetsk region.
The photo was taken on March 7, 2024. © Madeleine Kelly/Imago
“Ukraine must pursue an active defense strategy.
It can trade space for time because Ukraine is territorially very large,” said Zev Faintuch, analyst and military expert at the security firm Global Guardian, in an interview with the US portal
Newsweek
.
After all, Russia was only able to advance “in areas where it could accumulate a superiority in artillery fire and manpower,” said Faintuch.
Defenses against Russia’s major offensive: “Don’t have enough resources”
But while time is of the essence, work on the defenses is reportedly progressing slowly.
Even Oleksiy Hetman, major in the Ukrainian National Guard, expressed concern about the status quo in the Donetsk region: “The fortification lines should have been built since the beginning of 2022,” Hetman told the Ukrainian television channel
Espreso TV
.
“The fact is that we are not able to build defense lines in three rows and 1,500 km long that would be as strong as the so-called Russian Surovikin lines,” he added.
Last year, Russian forces built a massive defensive line named after Russian Gen. Sergei Surovikin that largely stalled Ukraine's summer offensive.
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Hetman therefore also called on people outside the military apparatus to help, after all there were “not enough technical and human resources”.
Defense expert Franz-Stefan Gady also told the
Wall Street Journal
that “the lack of layered defenses along the front line should be a concern.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier this week that Kiev had allocated nearly $790 million for fortifications.
Fighting in the Ukraine War: The focus of the fighting was southwest of Donetsk
According to Ukrainian sources, the Russian army is continuing its ground offensive in the east and south of the country.
There are said to be dozens of battles every day along the approximately 1,000 kilometer long front.
After the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the city of Avdiivka in the Donbass industrial region, the focus of the fighting shifted south to the town of Novomykhailivka, southwest of Donetsk, the General Staff said in a Facebook post.
(nak)