Free Republic

Trenches are not new to Ukraine. Trench warfare has long been a feature of the battle in eastern Ukraine for the Donbas region. Ukrainians fight from their own trenches on their side of the line near Popasna, where Russians are waging an intense campaign to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the city of Bakhmut. But the pace and the scale of Russian construction over the last couple of months is unmatched. All of the structures in the image above appeared within six days. The fortifications show how Russia’s military is trying to set up more robust, defensible positions against Ukrainian pressure,...

Wagner-Line: How useful is Russia's Defensive construction?

The soldiers, who say they are from Krasnodar in southern Russia, claim that after a month of being transported between different locations, they were dropped off "somewhere in the fields of Ukraine" with no radio, no ammunition and no medicine. They say they do not even know where they are. The men add that they are living in holes dug out of the ground with their bare hands as temperatures drop to zero at night time. Two people are so sick they need to be hospitalised, the men say. "There is no information, no command. We sit like on [tenterhooks],...