Kateryna Chornovol21:34, 08.08.24
It is known that the Russian Ministry of Defense and the regional border department of the FSB took part in the construction of the fortifications.
During the operation in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, Ukrainian troops broke through two lines of fortifications in a day. Over the 2.5 years of the war against Ukraine, Russian authorities spent 15 billion rubles on their construction.
This is reported by the Agency . It is noted that the construction of two reinforced lines of defense in the Kursk region was first announced in October 2022 by then Governor Roman Starovoit, who now heads the Russian Ministry of Transport. By November 5 of that year, he promised to complete the third line of defense. It is known that the Russian Ministry of Defense and the regional border department of the FSB took part in the construction of the fortifications.
Already in January 2023, Starovoit stated that the work was being carried out “in good faith.” According to him, at that time several lines of defense had been built, for which “significant funding” had been allocated.
“The cost of the work was not officially reported. However, the Kursk-based publication Moskovsky Komsomolets Chernozemye, citing sources, wrote that on November 30, 2022, the Capital Construction Department of the Kursk Region signed three contracts for the construction of fortifications with the Kursk Region Development Corporation for a total of 12 billion rubles. According to the newspaper, the company established by the regional authorities attracted almost 40 firms as subcontractors, including “close and dear” to the Kursk Governor Starovoit and the head of government Alexander Smirnov (now acting governor). Among them, the publication listed the companies InterGazOil, SK Infrastructure Projects, TG Kursk, Energo Resource, and Terra. Currently, the material is not available on the MK Chernozemye website, but is available in the web archive,” the report says.
Later, the media wrote that on March 21, 2023, the Kursk authorities concluded two more contracts for the construction of fortifications worth 3.2 billion rubles. But then one of the corporation’s subcontractors did not pay wages to workers, after which bankruptcy proceedings began and a criminal case was opened on the fact of theft and money laundering.
” OSINT analyst Brady Afrik, who compiled a map of Russian fortifications using satellite images, noted two lines of defense in the Korenevsky and Sudzhansky districts of the Kursk region – along the border itself and 5-10 km from it. Judging by Afrik’s map, the second line ran in front of Sudzha and 15 km from the village of Korenevo, where, according to Ukrainian and Russian sources, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had already entered. That is, it took the Ukrainians about a day to overcome two lines of fortifications built by Russia during the war,” writes the Agency.
According to the publication, one of the reasons for the rapid advance through the fortifications could be a “shortage of personnel.” The Center for National Resistance, well-known in Ukraine, showed pictures of the Kursk fortifications almost a year ago. It was noted then that almost all strongholds in the region were without personnel and equipment. All personnel were redeployed to the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions.
(C)UNIAN 2024