• Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the east and south has moved at a slow but calculated pace.

• This is because Russia has built an elaborate network of defensive lines, a retired US general says.

• The fortifications include rows of trenches, anti-tank traps, minefields, barbed wire, and more.

Liberating Russian-occupied territory is a slow, calculated process, and for good reason. As one retired US general put it, Kyiv’s forces needs to break through “20 kilometers of hell,” which is no easy task, especially with the tools at hand.

Ukraine is several weeks into its much-anticipated counteroffensive, and its military has made small territorial gains. But it’s tough fighting. Russia’s troops have built layers of sophisticated and vicious defenses designed to inflict as much pain on Ukraine’s advancing military as possible.

As Ukrainian forces prepared for their offensive, Russian forces spent those months readying elaborate defenses behind a sprawling front line that stretches for hundreds of miles across eastern and southern Ukraine. They consist of anti-tank ditches, barbed wire, concrete-hardened trenches, anti-tank and anti-personnel minefields, dragon’s teeth anti-vehicle obstacles, and bunkers.

Ukrainian forces built up an impressive arsenal of tanks, armored vehicles, and other weaponry provided by the US and its NATO allies to deliver an armored punch through Russian fortifications. Progress, however, has not come easy, and Ukrainian officials have frequently pushed back on pessimism that the counteroffensive is not moving fast enough, arguing that a quick, sweeping counteroffensive isn’t “feasible’ with just the weapons it has now.

This week, retired Brigadier Gen. Mark Kimmitt, who served for decades as a US Army officer and also as deputy director of operations for Coalition Forces in Iraq, broke down why it’s so difficult for Ukraine to puncture Russia’s lines.

In a Wall Street Journal video that was published on Monday, Kimmitt explained how these various defenses are stacked one in front of each other and can stretch for several miles, creating as many as eight layers of dangerous fortifications that Kyiv’s heavy armor — like advanced, Western-made tanks — and ground troops have to clear at costs in terms of both manpower and equipment.

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“The Russians, like most countries, have what they call a ‘deliberate defense,’ which is a series of layered obstacles all to make sure that the Ukrainian forces are stopped as far forward as possible,” Kimmitt said.

For example, he said, armored Ukrainian vehicles that try to advance get caught in anti-tank traps, exposing them to enemy fire. Infantry soldiers who pass the tank traps, meanwhile, can get bogged down by barbed wire, leaving them vulnerable to attacks. Should these forces get through, then they’re faced with trenches, minefields, and dragon’s teeth, which are rows of concrete spikes designed to stop vehicles in their tracks. 

Even after clearing these layers, the Ukrainians could face additional lines of barbed wire and trenches, which means intense close-quarters fighting. Here, Kyiv’s troops are also targets for Russian artillery, drones, aircraft, cluster munitions, and other deadly attacks.

“This is 20 kilometers of hell,” Kimmitt said, referring to the layers of defenses. “There is absolutely not doubt that it is probably the toughest fighting outside the cities,” he said, adding that Ukraine is currently trying to find and exploit a “soft spot” in Russia’s defenses.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said in late June that Ukraine’s slow pace can be attributed to the general nature of warfare but warned that the counteroffensive will be “very bloody.” And beyond being tasked with clearing Russia’s elaborate defense lines, Ukraine has to do so without air superiority and with a limited supply of artillery, though a solution to the latter problem may soon be on its way.

“The Russians are dug in, they have thrown a lot of defense and manpower and munitions at this, and the Ukrainians have bravely, systematically been punching and pushing forward and will continue to do so,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last week as he announced that the Biden administration would provide Kyiv with deadly but controversial cluster munitions to help with the counteroffensive.

“The Ukrainians also have a substantial amount of capacity they have not yet committed to this fight,” he added. “So, the story of this counteroffensive is far from written, and we will continue to support Ukraine along the way.”

Read the original article on Business Insider