After the surrender of Kherson, Russian forces establish defensive lines on the eastern side of the Dnipro. Now the occupation authorities in Crimea are announcing the construction of defensive positions. The peninsula lies several kilometers behind the front.
Russian authorities have begun building defense lines on Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, annexed in 2014. The fortifications were intended to guarantee the “safety of the Crimeans,” said Moscow’s head of administration, Sergey Aksyonov, at a meeting of the Crimean administration. First and foremost, however, security should be guaranteed in the part of the adjacent Cherson region that is still occupied by Russians. From there a narrow isthmus leads to the Crimea.
At the end of last week, the Russian armed forces cleared the right bank of the Dnipro River and with it the region’s capital, Kherson. Russian troops captured these areas shortly after the invasion began. The new front line along the Dnipro River is just over 60 kilometers from Crimea as the crow flies.
However, as the Russian troops retreated, they blew up three bridges across the wide lower reaches of the Dnipro, so an advance by the Ukrainian army in this area is currently considered unlikely. However, the withdrawal of Moscow’s forces allowed Ukrainian forces to move their artillery further forward. The northern Isthmus of Crimea is now within range of US HIMARS missile launchers.
In view of the successful Ukrainian advances, the Russian military had set up defensive positions at several points along the front in recent weeks. In early November, satellite images revealed new defensive positions on the east bank of the Dnipro. The defense belts are said to be about 150 kilometers long and stretch from the mouth of the Dnipro to the village of Vasylivka. As early as October, there was also a report about the so-called Wagner Line, which was built in the Ukrainian region of Luhansk. Around the occupied and largely destroyed port city of Mariupol, concrete anti-tank devices were also recently erected – presumably in anticipation of Ukrainian breakthroughs.
Crimea has been the target of multiple attacks in recent months. In October, the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea to mainland Russia and serves as an important supply route, was severely damaged by a bomb blast. Moscow attributed the attack to Ukraine. Russia also blamed Ukraine for attacks on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and for explosions at several Russian military bases on the peninsula.
Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Moscow has regarded the peninsula as Russian territory, which is not recognized internationally. Kyiv has announced that it wants to recapture Crimea.