 | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (September 2023)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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Both sides have built fortifications during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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The Surovikin line is a complex set of fortifications in southeastern Ukraine, engineered by and named for Russian general Sergey Surovikin. Surovikin had the line built during his tenure as the overall theater commander immediately after Ukraine's 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive. [1]
The Wagner line (Russian : линия Вагнера, romanized: liniya Vagnera, Ukrainian : лінія Вагнера, romanized: liniya Vahnera) is a defense line built in eastern Ukraine by the Wagner paramilitary group during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
On 19 October 2022, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the paramilitary group Wagner, [2] announced that he had begun the construction of a defense line. [3] The aim is to prevent Ukrainian troops from advancing towards the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, which was annexed by Russia in September. [4] [5] According to the Russian media, it is a "second line of defence in case the Ukrainian armed forces try to penetrate the area. [6] [7]
In a report dated 21 November 2022, the British Ministry of Defence considered that Moscow prioritized the construction of defensive positions on the Svatove–Kreminna line. [8]
The line consists of two double rows of pyramidal concrete blocks called "dragon's teeth" to block tanks from advancing. [9] [10] [11] [12] Between these two defensive curtains, a deep trench and firing stations complete the device. [10] It is not known whether the line has mines. [9]
The project foresees about 200 km (120 mi) of fortifications in eastern Ukraine, up to the Russian border. [10] [13] [14] The line shall extend on a south-north axis starting from the city of Svitlodarsk, along the front line to the Donets River, and then form an acute angle again eastwards, following the course of the river to the border. [2]
Andrey Bogatov, another leader of the Wagner Group, said that construction of the line had also begun in Belgorod Oblast, Russia. [15]
Several experts questioned the efficiency of the line.
For Xavier Tytelman, a conflict observer and defence consultant, "The dragon's teeth should be partially buried so that only the tip can pass through. A simple armoured bulldozer is enough to turn them over". [16]
According to the Ukrainian Governor of Luhansk Region, Serhiy Haidai, only 2 km had been built as of October 2022. [2] [17] The ABC News considers -through the study of satellite photos - that 12 km had been built as of February 2023. [18]
According to a bulletin issued in February 2023 by the ISW, Prigozhin's proposed extension of the Wagner line is intended to defend the border between Belgorod Oblast and the Ukrainian oblasts of Sumy, Kharkiv and Luhansk, but "would not cover the northern part of Luhansk Oblast up to the line of contact with the occupied territories, thus contradicting the Kremlin's promises to defend the entire Luhansk region". [19]
Dragon's teeth were not buried or camouflaged in the Wagner line before February 2023, which, according to a BBC article, severely limits their effectiveness. [20]
It may also be noted that the line did not protect the city of Sievierodonetsk as of November 2022. [14] The local authorities in Belgorod have already asked the Wagner Group to stop the construction of the trenches. [21]
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In December 2023 there were talks of starting construction on the Zaluzhny line, named after the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi [22] Zelensky said that a new phase of the war had started, which coincided with the culmination of the poor results of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in 2023. [23] [24] Urged by the US, Zelensky approved the construction effort in a video released on the 30th of November. US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin went to Kyiv to confer with Zelensky and Russian media suggested that the Ukrainians would receive money only for defensive purposes from that time onwards. [25] Zelensky told French media on 12 March 2024 that $520 million had been allocated for this purpose. [26] [27] 2,000km of fortifications would be dug in: [27] [25]
Luhansk Oblast, also referred to as Luhanshchyna (Луганщина), is the easternmost oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Luhansk. The oblast was established in 1938 and bore the name Voroshilovgrad Oblast until 1958 and again from 1970 to 1991. It has a population of 2,102,921.
Dragon's teeth are pyramidal anti-tank obstacles of reinforced concrete first used during the Second World War to impede the movement of tanks and mechanised infantry. The idea was to slow down and channel tanks into killing zones where they could easily be disposed of by anti-tank weapons.
The phone call to Putin is a slang term used by some Russian police departments for torture method which consists of administering electric shocks to the person's earlobes, nose, and/or genitals. According to Amnesty International, torture with electric shocks by security forces and prison, jail, and penal colony guards is common in Russia.
RT en Français, also known as RT France between December 2017 to April 2023, is the French version of the Russian state-controlled news channel RT, funded by the Russian government. Before the production activities relocated to Moscow in April 2023, The channel was based in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt.
Sergey Vladimirovich Surovikin is a Russian army general who serves as head of the Coordinating Committee for Air Defence under the Council of Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) since September 2023.
The Territorial Defence Forces are the military reserve component of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.
Dmitry Valerievich Utkin was a Russian military officer and mercenary. He served as a special forces officer in the GRU, where he held the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was the co-founder and military commander of the Russian state-funded Wagner Group, with his military alias reportedly being Wagner. Utkin was reportedly a neo-Nazi. He rarely made public appearances, but was allegedly the commander of the private military company, while Yevgeny Prigozhin was its owner and public face. Utkin was awarded four Orders of Courage of Russia.
Serhiy Volodymyrovych Haidai is a Ukrainian entrepreneur and politician. He was the head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration from 25 October 2019 to 15 March 2023.
Ukraine's easternmost oblasts, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv, are the site of a theatre of operation in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The town of Borodianka was bombed extensively by the Russian Armed Forces during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The battle of Donbas was a military offensive that was part of the wider eastern Ukraine campaign of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The offensive began on 18 April 2022 between the armed forces of Russia and Ukraine for control of the Donbas region. Military analysts consider the campaign to have been the second strategic phase of the invasion, after Russia's initial three-pronged attack into Ukraine.
The torture of Russian soldiers in Mala Rohan was an incident during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine that occurred in the village of Mala Rohan. As documented by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, members of Ukrainian armed forces shot the legs of three captured Russian soldiers and tortured Russian soldiers who were wounded. The incident is likely to have occurred on the evening of March 25, 2022 and was first reported following the publication on social media of a video of unknown authorship between March 27 and March 28. As a case of summary execution and torture of prisoners of war, the incident might qualify as a war crime.
Oleksiy Opanasovych Vadaturskyy was a Ukrainian agricultural and grain logistics businessman and the founder of Nibulon, the largest grain logistics company in Ukraine. He was one of the wealthiest Ukrainians.
Since 19 September 2022, a military campaign has taken place along a 60-km frontline in western parts of Luhansk Oblast and far-eastern parts of Kharkiv Oblast amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Also known as the Svatove–Kreminna line or the Kupiansk–Svatove–Kreminna–Bilohorivka line after the major settlements along the front, the campaign began a day after the Ukrainian Army recaptured the nearby city of Lyman during the Kharkiv counteroffensive after of which the front line froze over the next few months.
Yevgeny Anatolyevich Nuzhin was a convicted Russian murderer who enlisted in Wagner Group during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 12 November 2022, following the conclusion of Ukraine's Kherson and Kharkiv counteroffensives, to 7 June 2023, the day before the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive began. Russia continued its strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure while the Battle of Bakhmut escalated.
The Wagner Group, also known as PMC Wagner, a Russian paramilitary organization also described as a private military company (PMC), a network of mercenaries, and a de facto unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) or Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, has conducted operations in Ukraine since early 2014.
Trauma has affected military veterans and civilian populations exposed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
