Ukraine’s budget for fortifications is at level of Putin’s spending on Belgorod fortifications
On February 20, Russian Minister of War Sergei Shoigu reported to Vladimir Putin on the capture of Avdiivka. On the same day, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported this news with an article: "Shoigu: Creating a tight perimeter was Putin's idea". In it, Shoigu praises the Russian leader for his foresight. Putin allegedly "personally controlled the process of creating the defense line" and thanks to this line, it was possible to stop the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army in the summer.
"It is more than 2,000 kilometers, but it is not just a deeply echeloned line - it is a defense that allows for an offensive in certain areas," the publication quotes him as saying.
In early November, Military Journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Censor.Net Yurii Butusov wrote that the enemy had built a serious fortification near Avdiivka, describing the difficult situation of the Ukrainian army there: "Not far from the front line, the Russian command has concentrated civilian engineering equipment, which is digging strongholds and communication passages, and dugouts are being poured with concrete. These are reliable field fortifications, which will be very difficult to knock the enemy out of. Yes, they are advancing on Avdiivka, but to reinforce it, they immediately build defensive lines in the near rear, for safe maneuvering of reserves.
(...) the last line of defense of Avdiivka is the embankment of the railroad track to the north of the city. The enemy came to this embankment and in one place even crossed it and consolidated on the other side of the track.
This should have been our rear line of defense of the "Avdiivka fortress," but look, for nine years of war, for a year and a half of full-scale invasion, nothing has been done to equip this embankment as the rear line of defense of Avdiivka. As if there are no civilian tractors, excavators, or trucks in Ukraine. As if it is cheaper to throw infantrymen with a shovel into an empty place and give them an order to dig in than to dig into the ground by using equipment, make a reliable overhead cover, concrete dugouts, then mine it, and make this railroad embankment an impregnable defensive line for small infantry groups. But there are not even trenches there. (...)
If our positions had been dug here the way the Russians are digging on their side, there would have been no Russian breakthrough and no crisis near Avdiivka at all."
Shortly after withdrawing from Avdiivka, the Ukrainian Armed Forces withdrew from several villages nearby.
On February 28, Anatolii Nikitin, a spokesman of the Tavria OSGT, noted that the Ukrainian armed forces continue to conduct offensive operations in the Avdiivka direction, using "natural terrain." According to him, the existing field fortifications protect only "against infantry and artillery strikes," not against guided aerial bombs.
At the same time, according to Deep State analysts, the enemy has dug more than 6,000 kilometers of engineering and fortification structures. As of November 22, the most heavily fortified regions by the occupiers are Zaporizhzhia (1869 km) and Donetsk (1865 km). In the Luhansk region, the Russian army has built 1140 km of fortifications.
In the Kherson region - 886 km along the Dnipro River - from Nova Kakhovka to Heroiske. The occupiers have also fortified the approaches to the Crimean Isthmus. In Crimea itself, they have dug 265 km of trenches.
Since the full-scale invasion, what has been built on the free territory of Ukraine?
According to the Center for Journalistic Investigations, Russian defense lines can be easily seen on satellite images. At the same time, there is nothing similar in scale on the Ukrainian side.
The occupiers began building fortifications in the Zaporizhzhia region in August 2022, before they retreated from Kherson and the right bank of the Dnipro. By January 2023, the first line of defense had already been built. Ukrainians began building fortifications on a large scale there in late summer 2023, a year later.
How much did the fortifications cost the Russians?
In December, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin spoke of 34 billion rubles spent in the Russian regions bordering Ukraine alone.
In the Belgorod region alone, Russia spent 10 billion rubles on defense structures as of the beginning of 2023, which is about 3 billion UAH.
It is generally unknown how much the Russians spent on the entire system of fortifications, for example, in the Zaporizhzhia region, which British intelligence called the largest in modern history. The occupiers continue to fortify there to this day.
For comparison, in Ukraine, until recently, local military administrations were responsible for the construction of fortifications.
According to the Center for Journalistic Investigations, in 2022, Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration spent about UAH 20 million on the construction of fortifications, and in 2023, local officials spent about UAH 98 million on fortifications.
Given these relatively meager sums, we can assume that we are talking about a small amount of work against the enemy's scale.
In December 2023, the government allocated another UAH 31.7 million to the Zaporizhzhia region for fortifications. At the same time, local journalists asked the head of the region, Yurii Malashko, how these funds would be used. The head said that they "continue to build" and will continue to build in 2024.
"By that time, it had already become clear that the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had stopped, and we had to move to defense. And there are virtually no echeloned lines of defensive fortifications in the Zaporizhzhia region," the publication noted.
Ordering customers for the fortifications
In November 2023, a special working group headed by Minister Rustem Umierov and Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov was set up at the Ministry of Defense to resolve issues related to the construction of fortifications. The group was to develop rules for the construction of fortifications for Ukrainian troops.
It was decided that military units could build fortifications on the first line of defense, while the State Agency for Infrastructure Restoration and Development and regional military administrations would engage private contractors on the second and third lines.
The Ministry of Defense developed a resolution, which was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers in late December, introducing a unified approach to the design of fortifications and expanding the list of bodies that can finance them.
The Ministry of Defense, the State Special Transport Service, and the State Agency for Infrastructure Recovery and Development were added to the list of regional administrations.
As the Defense Ministry explains, the wider range of customers made it possible to cover the needs for fortifications faster from the state and local budgets.
At the same time, Fedorov said that a volunteer business community had been formed under the working group to provide patronage for the construction of facilities in the "hottest" areas.
On January 12, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated more than UAH 2.6 billion to strengthen the defense border-lines and the border.
In 2023, more than UAH 1.7 billion was allocated from the reserve fund for the construction of fortifications.
What orders for the construction of fortifications have appeared in Prozorro?
In the electronic procurement system, spending on fortifications is classified as a highly classified contract for obvious reasons. Customers of fortifications do not disclose information about the location and design features of the construction, nor do they publish their estimates. The procurement lists only the customer, sometimes the contractor, and the total project budget.
For example, in the summer, Kharkiv RMA (Regional Military Administration) reported in the system on secret procurement of construction works on fortifications for UAH 382 million.
In the second half of October, the Chernihiv RMA announced a tender for the construction of nine strongholds in the region bordering Belarus and Russia for UAH 343.72 million.
In February of this year, Kharkiv RMA ordered the construction of fortifications for UAH 2.02 billion.
At the same time, Donetsk RMA did not make such purchases. According to Nashi Hroshi (Our Money - ed. note), several contractors of the local service for the restoration and development of infrastructure are currently digging trenches in the region.
In February, Zhytomyr region announced a contract for the construction of fortifications worth UAH 350 million. At the same time, Rivne region announced a contract worth almost UAH 1 billion for fortifications that will be built over two years, until the end of 2025. The contractor is not specified.
