Ukraine’s Scramble to Build Defense Lines Exposes Jarring Internal Discord

Ukraine’s blood-soaked summer counteroffensive to a great degree owed its spectacular failure to the Russian military's successful strategy of static defense. Furthermore, formidable minefields laid by Russian combat engineers proved impervious to Ukraine's Western-supplied modern military equipment.

Long gone are the days when US media reports were all bluster about the impending Ukrainian counteroffensive. That was last summer, and it fizzled out into huge manpower and hardware losses. Now that the tables have been turned, a different tune has been struck up.

As Russia’s Armed Forces press forward relentlessly, Ukraine is in a frantic scramble to make up for lost time and dig enough trenches, Politico has stated. By all accounts, Kiev has landed in this unenviable position because "warnings" from both Western analysts and Ukraine’s own opposition lawmakers about the need to dig in fell on deaf ears. The latter is apparently understandable, given that President Volodymyr Zelensky and his circle were much too busy tooting their own horn at the time.

The outlet rustled up a batch of interviews with Ukrainian opposition lawmakers, instead of the usual choice of Ukrainian soldiers or active military commanders. This time, the interlocutors cited their concerns over the lack of adequate defense fortifications in the face of an anticipated Russian offensive, seemingly laying the blame with the Kiev leadership, which has been mired in reshuffles and dismissals.

“We were warning since last summer that you have to construct defensive fortifications on an industrial scale, bringing together the appropriate ministers and local military administrations to build defensive lines fast and make them extremely strong,” a lawmaker by the name of Rostyslav Pavlenko told the outlet.

He added that the pace and the materials being used for such construction were a disappointment.

Yet another Ukrainian opposition politician cited fears that there was now far too little time for Kiev to construct the much-needed defenses in earnest.

“They started building them finally. But this is late. They started really last month,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a former deputy prime minister in the administration of ex-President Petro Poroshenko.

Of course, unheeded Western warnings are also being suggested as an excuse for the calamitous situation. Apparently, more of the same counsel came from military analysts at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Before the counteroffensive, they stated in a May 2023 report that “engineering has proven to be one of the strongest branches of the Russian military. The defenses now constructed, consisting of complex obstacles and field fortifications, will pose a major tactical challenge to Ukrainian offensive operations.”

Furthermore, one former senior field commander revealed that Ukraine lacks both the mines required for the new fortifications and the mobilized soldiers to adequately man them.

In the aftermath of the failed, but much-heralded, summer counteroffensive, Volodymyr Zelensky and his Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal acknowledged the need for boosted fortifications, particularly after their own forces had come up against Russia’s formidable three lines of well-designed defenses. In fact, Shmyhal stated at a press briefing on January 24, after a meeting with his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico in Uzhgorod, that Ukraine was going to build a three-tiered defense line. He said that Ukraine was being sent armored excavators and demining equipment, and announced $524 million in funding for the construction, with other sources reportedly providing an additional $280 million.

“We started building and overhauling defense fortifications only on March 1. The fortifications have a complex purpose and will consist of barriers able to stop armor and minefields,” Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkov region, was cited as saying.

Ukraine will not launch its own production of 155 mm caliber shells until the second half of 2024, The Washington Post has quoted sources as saying.

According to a source, there is a catastrophic shortage of these shells at the front, but production will not begin until "the… pic.twitter.com/sRJ8D9a8CL

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 20, 2024

Pundits told Sputnik earlier that the timing of Shmyhal's announcement was linked to the fact that the Kiev regime urgently needs money, as Western financial aid has almost run out. However, Kiev's announcement does not necessarily mean that the proposed sophisticated defenses will in fact be built.

After Volodymyr Zelensky told the US press that he wants to build defensive structures all the way from Donbass to Western Ukraine, some Russian military observers calculated the costs. A multi-layered defensive line of at least 2,800 km (1,700 miles), according to their estimates, would cost at least $10 billion.

As for Russia, even the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC think tank, has characterized its defensive positions in Donbass, Kherson, and Zaporozhye as "the most extensive…in Europe since the Second World War." Whether using its defensive tactics or state-of-the-art sophisticated weaponry, in 2023 Russia proved it is more than capable of fending off and destroying hundreds of modern Western military vehicles, tanks, and artillery systems.