Russian occupation forces have started to build new defensive lines in the ‘deep rear’ on the Zaporizhzhia front.
May their efforts be all in vain.
For what possible reason could they need defensive lines so far from the front? 🤔 Oh, right, the front is fast approaching the rear!
That’s good in that it means that they expect that the line likely won’t hold, but not good in that it means that this is going to be a slog rather than in the open after the existing three lines are penetrated; I’d been wondering whether Russia had been expecting to try additional defenses before Crimea, and it looks like the answer is likely “yes”.
EDIT: Wait, no. Man, the title is seriously misleading. It sounds like they are strengthening the existing lines, not creating a new line, from the tweet that the article is based on.
The occupiers claim that the counteroffensive in Zaporizhzhia Oblast has already failed, but they have begun to strengthen the ‘deep rear’ and reinforce the defence on the ‘third line’
That’s just reinforcing the third line, which makes sense.
They are digging new trenches and reinforcing defences near the front in Polohy district;
Polohny is in the first line, unless there are multiple Polohny places. Digging new trenches doesn’t entail a new line. A line doesn’t consist of a single trench, and existing trenches weren’t always contiguous. I recall someone – I think Michael Kofman – recently pointing out that the third line was intended more for command and staging, so it wasn’t always contiguous. If Russia intends to defend that line directly, they’re probably going to want to dig more trench out.
Click on the little fort button to show fortifications.
They are occupying houses and deploying new equipment in villages near Tokmak, and setting up checkpoints and anti-tank hedgehogs in the city of Tokmak itself;
Tokmak was already surrounded by fortifications, part of the existing third line.
They are seizing new recreation centres on the Azov coast, and setting up a helicopter base at the airfield in Berdiansk;
That’s far south, but not a line.
They are bringing in former convicts to defend Robotyne and hold the front."
Ukraine holds Robotyne, based on the current maps showing control I see. It definitely isn’t a new line of defense to the south, at any rate.
So the only thing here that actually refers to defenses further south, that I can see, is the helicopter base and seizing the recreation centers on the coast. The latter could be for any number of things, maybe a barracks out of current range of Ukrainian artillery, but probably won’t be a defensive line, since if Ukrainian forces were fighting there, they’d have already cut the Russian east-west supply lines.
The article title should probably say something like “Russia strengthens existing rearward lines after Ukrainian forces penetrate forward lines”.
There is a shorter line well south that covers some distance on the land bridge, just north of Melitopol, from Semenivka to Domuzly, but that isn’t new: it is a year old.
I don’t know what the purpose of that line is – maybe it’s to buy time for other forces to retreat before the M14 is cut by Ukrainian infantry, but it’s 23 km from the water at the west end and 28 km from the water at the east end. And only 15 km from the M14. If Ukranian artillery can get anywhere near that point, the M14 highway, the southernmost east-west link on the land bridge, will already be within artillery range, as will land stretching up to the Sea of Azov. I doubt that it’ll be realistic for Russia to hold the land bridge as a supply route in that event.
That is where they are in deep alright.
