The trenches suggest Russian commanders fear a major Ukrainian counteroffensive
In a major sign of waning confidence, Russian forces have built a vast fortified trench well behind the frontline in Ukraine.
The defensive lines stretch continuously across 45 miles of occupied Ukrainian countryside, according to analysis of publicly available satellite images by the independent Crimean Centre for Investigative Journalism.
It cuts across the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, more than 50 miles into Russian-held territory and hundreds of miles away from the most active warzone around the eastern city of Bakhmut.
The western end of the ‘megatrench’ begins near Melitopol, which is the seat of a puppet government used by Putin to rule the occupied half of the region.
The ‘mega trench’ stretches continuousy across 45 miles of countryside
It appears on images from the EU-funded Sentinel-2 satellite (Picture: E2W)
Melitopol is also seen as the ‘gateway to Crimea’, the peninsula which was illegally seized by Russia in 2014.
The appearance of the trench hints suggests Russian commanders fears a Ukrainian counteroffensive could recapture most or all of its lost territories in the south.
This would be a major blow to Putin as he would be reduced to fighting for slivers of new eastern land to tack onto parts of the Donetsk and Donbas regions which were already held by pro-Russian separatists before the 2022 invasion.
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Digging appears to have begun in September and ramped up massively in the following weeks, with fortifications completed by early April.
This coincides with a period of retreat of Russian forces, who had advanced to Kyiv in the first stages of the war but were later pushed back and forced to abandon positions in central and northern Ukraine.
The images showing the trenches were obtained from the Sentinel-2, one of several satellites from the EU’s Copernicus space programme whose data is available freely online.
Natalya Gumenyuk, spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern defence forces, said: ‘Well, at least they [the Russians] will win at something.
‘There will be no second victories. Let them be record holders from the trenches.’
Trench warfare is widely seen as a relic of the past associated with high-casualty tactics (Picture: E2W)
Civilian workers from Kyrgyzstan were reportedly needed to complete the trench (Picture: E2W)
Reports suggest the Russian military, which is struggling to recruit reinforcements, was forced to complete the trenches using hired civilian workers from Kyrgyzstan who complain they have been underpaid.
The lines were identified with defences seen in Russian propaganda footage which bizarrely brags about how the men had to dig ‘with sapper shovels like in the Second World War’.
Trench warfare has largely died out due to advances in modern tactics as it is associated with high-casualty offences for little strategic gain.
It has been virtually unheard of in the 21st century outside of eastern Ukraine, which was the site of a ‘frozen conflict’ between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists for years before Putin’s invasion and is now dominated by bloody stalemates.
Putin poured tens of billions of roubles into proxy forces and mercenary groups fighting to keep the separatists in control of Donetsk and Donbas.
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The trenches suggest Russian commanders fear they could lose much of southern Ukraine to a major counterattack.
