Russia Spent Billions on Fortifications. Rebels Simply Went Around Them

Fortifications intended to protect the Russian oblast of Belgorod from cross-border attacks are ineffective, according to an investigation by independent Russian media outlets.

The region bordering Ukraine has seen frequent shelling attacks and drone strikes since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has often blamed Kyiv for the attacks.

A cross-border raid on May 22 from the Ukrainian region of Sumy by anti-Kremlin paramilitaries highlighted the vulnerability of Belgorod oblast and the threat of the war spilling over into Russia.

It showed the ineffectiveness of what is known as the Zasechnaya Line of trenches and anti-tank concrete blocks, known as "dragon's teeth," according to a joint investigation by the Russian outlet 7x7 media and the Belgorod outlet Pepel . Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the claims.

The outlets found that the defense cost 10 billion rubles ($124,285,400) with construction beginning three months after the war started, in April 2022.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced in March 2023 that the fortifications were complete and deter the threat from Ukraine.

However, accounts monitoring the war noted on social media the inability of the new construction to deter the pro-Ukraine rebels.

The Telegram channel Spy Dossier, which is linked to Russian security services, said that the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR) did not enter Belgorod along the line of defensive fortifications, "but along the 14K-4 Kozinka-Belgorod highway completely unhindered."

The Telegram channel of news outlet Country Politics noted that the attack took place to the west of the fortifications.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko mocked Gladkov and described the ease with which the groups passed into Belgorod oblast.

He wrote on Telegram that the fortifications "turned out to be a shallow ditch, and the rebels simply bypassed the dragon's concrete teeth."

Newsweek has contacted the Belgorod governor's office and the Russian defense ministry for comment.

Ruslan Leviev, a military researcher and founder of the open-source investigative outlet Conflict Intelligence Team, told 7x7 that the fortifications, which aimed to slow down the advance of enemy ground forces, would not work against drones and artillery.

This was because "it is mostly an artillery war" and if Ukrainian forces were to storm them, "troops will first clear the territory with the fortifications with artillery fire."

The concrete blocks can then be towed away meaning that "in the current reality, these fortifications are useless," he said, believing a more effective way to protect the border would have been to relocate residents and move military equipment out of artillery range.

He told another news outlet, Sirena , which reports on the war, that the fortifications are effective only if they are covered, for example, by artillery and there is no one in the Belgorod region to do this and that even with soldiers in trenches, "gaps will remain."

"So even in an obvious place, in Grayvoron, no one interfered with the saboteurs," he said, referring to the area in Belgorod oblast that rebels had entered.

The Conflict Intelligence Team told 7x7 that the fortifications were probably touted by the governor to show the Kremlin and the local population that they were taking defending the country seriously but served little purpose.

Such fortifications are also present in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, the latter being one of the areas of Ukraine's counteroffensive which started in recent days, raising the possibility that problems are likely to plague the defensive line across the length of the border.

Leviev told the outlet that even if Kyiv could push Russian troops back from captured territories and reached the fortifications, they were "unlikely to storm or break through these defenses."

Former infantry officer Randy Mott wrote on Twitter about the problems that Russian fortifications might pose for the rest of the war.

He said that the Russian lines "are uneven and often poorly manned" and that when they respond to threats in the front, "they commit forces that cannot be readily moved as the battlefield changes with breakthroughs elsewhere."