The Wagner group says it builds fortifications – politics

Russian occupiers in eastern Ukraine seem increasingly concerned about possible counterattacks by Ukrainian forces. So shared Telegram channels related to the Russian mercenary group “Group Wagner”. with, in the Ukrainian region of Luhansk and the Russian region of Belgorod there are plans to build a line of defense. satellite imagery and videos show several rows of pyramid-shaped concrete blocks meant to stop vehicles, as well as trenches. Soldiers, tanks or guns are nowhere to be seen, and the line of defense that has been set up so far does not seem to be particularly long, according to estimates by the American news channel CNN only about 1.6 kilometers.

According to maps circulating about the construction project, several hundred kilometers seem to be planned. Also should according to the Russian exile newspaper Meduza a militia to be trained in Belgorod. It is questionable whether the Wagner force has the resources to set up such a facility and to set up a militia. Presumably the pictures and announcements are more propaganda than real war strategy. The fortifications shown are said to be near Hirske, more than ten kilometers behind the actual front line. Perhaps the “Wagner Group” assumes that these currently occupied areas cannot be held anyway – or they wanted to be able to take a few photos and videos without Ukrainian artillery fire.

However, this construction may also serve purposes of Russian domestic politics, as indicated by some of the Telegram messages, which say that “representatives of the authorities and administrations” oppose “the interests of the population”. This is what the experts at the Institute for the Study of War suspect In Washington DC, the founder and financier of the “Wagner Group”, Yevgeny Prigozhin, deviated from the Kremlin’s line by building this defense system and supporting the demands of Russian nationalists for better protection of the border with the Belgorod region.

The planned course of the defense line also differs from the areas that the Kremlin says are under Russian control. These discrepancies are indeed peculiar, but Washington’s assessment that the construction of the defense line is creating “rifts in the Russian government” seems somewhat speculative. The construction rather raises the question of why the Kremlin-financed but officially private and independent Wagner troops are taking on the construction of anti-tank obstacles and trenches and not the regular Russian army, which actually has fewer personnel problems after the partial mobilization than a few weeks ago would have to.

Possibly Moscow would like to maintain the impression that the defense of the occupied territories is already working without additional measures. The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that Ukrainian counterattacks had been repulsed and that attacks on Ukraine’s energy supply had continued. The Russian occupation administration also announced on Sunday that the situation was stable and that the defense would be strengthened.

source site