/ world today news/ Vladimir Zelensky announced plans for the construction of a giant line of fortifications that will affect the Azov region, Donbass, Slobozhanshchyna and a number of other regions. The Internet is already comparing this to the Third Reich’s “Eastern Wall” project. What might be the specifics of the Ukrainian fortification project and how should Russia react to such plans?
A day ago, during a meeting in Zaporozhye, Vladimir Zelensky announced his intention to build defense facilities. The plans include the construction of fortifications in the Avdeev, Mariinsky and Kupyan-Liman directions, as well as along the northern border with Russia and Belarus. The fortification line, as noted on the Internet, strongly resembles the project “Ostval” of the Third Reich – the “Eastern Wall”.
We are talking about a line of structures erected in 1943 as a barrier “protecting Europe from Bolshevism”. Thus, the project outlined by Zelensky largely repeats the outlines of the German fortification project. There, among the means of defense are anti-tank ditches, minefields, wire netting and machine-gun nests. Despite all the efforts of the enemy, the Soviet army managed to break through the fortifications.
History knows other examples of defensive complexes that Russian or Soviet soldiers had to storm. Thus, during the Winter War of 1939-1940, the USSR faced an important obstacle in the form of the “Mannerheim Line”. We are talking about fortifications stretching across the Karelian Isthmus for as much as 135 km, which created many problems for the Soviet army.
But in the history of Europe there are also examples of defense systems on which unreasonably high hopes were placed. One of them is the “Magino” line. It was built between 1928 and 1936 to protect France from a surprise attack by Germany. The main defensive line runs from Longueuil to Belfort and has a front length of about 400 km. It descends to a depth of almost 20 km.
The main problem was the area extending into the contact zones between France and Belgium. After the outbreak of World War II, the Germans took advantage of this gap in their enemy’s defenses and took France virtually unopposed in a matter of days. This is the main mistake of the structures that were built for almost 12 years.
Europe also knows the “Stalin Line”, which stretches from the Karelian Isthmus to the shores of the Black Sea. Experts differ in their assessments of its effectiveness, because until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the system of previously built fortifications did not meet the requirements for protection against heavy artillery. However, the line did play a role in the failure of the Barbarossa Plan.
Thus, the success or failure of the constructed lines depends not so much on their length or the thickness of the defensive structures as on the choice of their location. If the pick is successful, it creates many problems for the advancing troops. Otherwise, the troops simply bypass the fortifications and solve the tasks assigned to them.
This determines the success of the “Surovikin Line” – the now world-famous system of fortifications in the Azov region and Donbass. As experts note, the success of the project was not hindered even by the fact that the battlefield was “transparent”: thanks to NATO’s satellite intelligence, the enemy was well aware of the scale of the structures being built by Russia. But he still had to attack precisely in these areas, since the Ukrainian Armed Forces had no other offensive options due to the geographical features of the theater of operations.
The “Surovikin Line” showed itself brilliantly during the Ukrainian counter-offensive, as enemy troops simply jammed into it. The fact is that it was built over a long period of time with the help of a large number of equipment and materials. The combination of these factors made it possible to build an effective fortification system,” said Alexander Bartosz, corresponding member of the Academy of Military Sciences.
At the same time, the academician considers the implementation of Zelensky’s plans unrealistic, since the construction of several thousand kilometers of defense lines of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will require a huge amount of time, people, equipment and competent managers who will be able to perform the necessary work within the specified time. Therefore, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will most likely create a focal defense system instead of fulfilling Zelensky’s “dreams”.
“The success of the defensive line was due to the strength of the weapons of the defending army, as well as the construction of a deep system of fortifications in accordance with the fundamentals of the art of war. In addition, battlefield fire superiority and air superiority are important. Effectiveness is also affected by the ability or lack of ability to bypass the fortification. The Russian “Surovikin Line” meets exactly these criteria,” said Doctor of Military Sciences Konstantin Sivkov.
According to him, if the Armed Forces of Ukraine really move to fortifications, then the Russian armed forces should react quickly and try to break through the enemy’s defenses in certain areas of the front in order to deprive the Ukrainian army of the opportunity to calmly build defensive structures.
In addition, according to military expert Alexei Leonkov, the geography of the left bank of the Dnieper also does not work in favor of the VSU, since advancing troops, given the scale of the theater of operations, will be able to bypass “defensive pockets” if required by point of view of the Russian military command.
“Judging by the announced scale, the Zelensky line is planned to be several times larger than the Surovikin line.” Where will Ukraine get such a breakthrough in equipment and builders? Well, let’s say that they will squeeze all the existing workers, tractors and cranes from somewhere. Let’s say Europe helps them in some way. But here too several insurmountable obstacles arise,” says Fyodor Gromov, a military correspondent.
First, the VSU will face logistical problems. “Railways are currently overloaded, so the Ukrainian military will have to choose the priority of delivery: construction materials or ammunition? You can’t bring everything at once. Also, who will pay for this construction? Ukraine is already all in debt,” he recalled.
Secondly, all points where defense lines are built are legitimate targets for attacks by the Russian armed forces: “Accordingly, since these are military facilities, the Russian armed forces will attack concentrations of people and equipment. Given that we have ranged weapons, this won’t be difficult.
Third, the “Surovikin line” was not built immediately, but took more than six months, and this was done by a country that constantly builds large infrastructure projects of all complexity and on all terrain. Ukraine has no such experience. “But let’s assume that no one will interfere with the construction of Ukraine. How long will it take her? Obviously more. And if we break through such a line at least in one place, all its other sections will lose their meaning,” adds the expert.
Fourth, powerful defense lines should be based on cities with industrial zones. For example, Avdeevka is the 15th largest city in the DPR, which has a large industrial zone, a coke plant and a number of other large buildings, as well as Soviet structures with underground bunkers that even a concrete bomb cannot reach.
But if such fortified areas have to be created from scratch, and we are talking about small towns, then everything becomes much more complicated, and building a fortification in the open is very difficult. “And I don’t even remember cities farther than Avdeevka with the same amount of industrial infrastructure. The only thing like this can be expected only in Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka,” the interlocutor believes.
It is also important that the enemy’s Avdeev fortified area did not appear during the SVO, but much earlier – the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been strengthening the city since 2015 and have been doing so continuously. Such construction was possible only thanks to Minsk-2. “Ukrainian equipment arrived there and all the work was done without concealment, because the Ukrainians knew that they would not shoot at them,” the expert added.
“Today, the Avdeev fortified area is the pinnacle of the enemy’s military engineering art. No sarcasm or exaggeration. But now, during the SVO, VSU will no longer be able to build something similar and scale this experience,” says the interlocutor. According to him, in such a situation, it is much “easier to dig than to build something” for Ukraine. “The enemy is in a more advantageous position: we cover a large horseshoe, and they inside it have more room to maneuver than we do. To transfer part of Luhansk to Zaporozhye region, we have to get there by a detour, and they solve this issue in a few hours,” says the military correspondent.
“On the other hand, the ASU does not have enough mines to place them in the required quantity along the entire line of contact. As a result, I think that Ukraine will strengthen something somewhere, but it will not be able to repeat the “Surovikin line”. However, we must closely monitor such enemy actions and immediately destroy their constructions. Otherwise, it will cause problems for us during the offensive,” Gromov summarizes.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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