Putin is asking Trump for Ukraine’s Fortress Belt
Russia is sneakily trying to take control of a vital fortification line that has protected Ukraine since 2014. Those who poured their blood and sweat into building it explain Putin’s scheme.
Editor’s note: Today’s Putin-Trump summit, taking place on American soil, is the latest sign that our reporting is more relevant than ever.
In other media outlets you will see abstract mentions of land and territory.
At The Counteroffensive we take you into the personal stories about the people affected when great powers treat smaller countries like mere chess pieces.
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While drone pilots and soldiers have always been front and center, there’s another hero defending the country that has never gotten quite as much attention.
A vast expanse of wire, concrete, trenches, and gravel snaking across the entire Ukrainian front line, serving as one of the country’s most vital defenses against a full-blown Russian takeover.
This fortification belt in the Donetsk region is the top prize Putin wants to claim in negotiations to end the war, and he will undoubtedly go into his face-to-face meeting with Trump today hoping the American president will help him get it.
Of course, Putin hasn’t said this out loud. The Kremlin is pushing for control of the entire Donetsk region, which would push Ukrainian defenses out of the trench lines and into the open, making Ukraine much more vulnerable to future attack.
The Russian leader will almost certainly try to charm his American counterpart into putting more pressure on Ukraine to make this massive concession.
It’s a region the Russians have been unable to capture fully since 2014, thanks largely to the powerful system of fortifications there. At the current pace of the Russian army’s advance, it would take them many years to seize full control.
Giving this defense belt up would enable unhindered, rapid advances of Russian equipment and threaten Ukraine’s very existence as a state.
And all of this in exchange for nothing more than a promise to freeze the front line—a promise that Ukrainians realize Putin is unlikely to keep.
Oleksii, a Ukrainian soldier who worked as a taxi driver and later in a water utility company until Russian atrocities in Bucha in 2022 compelled him to join the military, has worked tirelessly to build fortifications in the Donetsk region.
He and his comrades try to head out as early as possible, rising before dawn to avoid the scorching sun. The cooler air makes it a bit easier to saw through the remnants of the Serebryansky Forest.
Once a nature reserve where rare plants grew, trees from the Serebryansky Forest are now used for the fortification lines in the ‘fortress belt’.
Oleksii, who has four daughters at home, knew that at the age of almost 50, he wouldn’t be able to serve in combat roles. So he joined the engineering troops, who usually handle construction: digging trenches, building bridges, crossings, and ultimately fortifications.
His tasks vary from day to day: from collecting soil and gravel, to chopping timber, and delivering supplies to the fortification belt. It's work that has largely flown under the radar compared to that of those in combat.
But in reality, Ukraine’s ability to withstand Russian offensives depends on it.
“You have to grab it all at once in one spot, because the Serebryansky Forest is already under fire. You have to manage it before those bastards spot you. Then the vehicles arrive, pick it up and deliver it for reinforcement work,” said Oleksii.
The fortification belt has helped hold back the Russians along a 30-mile stretch of the highway that links key cities in the Donetsk region. It runs from Kostiantynivka, in the south, which is now under threat of encirclement, all the way to Sloviansk, encompassing the Serebriansky Forest where Oleksii serves.
The urbanized area, with dense buildings, industrial sites, and a river, is already its own kind of barrier in the Donetsk region.
"Every settlement is a kind of fortification that makes it possible to hold out. If we lose it, the enemy gains an advantage," explained Roman Pohorilyi, a сo-founder of DeepStateMap, an open-source interactive map tracking military operations in Ukraine.
But these are supplemented by man-made fortifications, which Ukrainians began building especially actively from late 2023. That was when Kyiv shifted from a failed counteroffensive to defending its territories.
Fortifications can be active: those that directly hinder Russian advances by slowing their offensives, such as minefields or anti-tank ditches.
Then there are also passive fortifications, meant to protect personnel and equipment from attacks: trenches, dugouts, bunkers, and so on. They form a network in several lines, stretching for kilometers into the rear to allow for a safe retreat.
“Specialists survey the terrain to determine the most likely point of a Russian breakthrough. If there’s a swamp on the right, they won’t go there; if it’s dry on the left, they might, so we’d need to dig an anti-tank ditch there. Then the equipment arrives… The guys throw in wooden logs or pour in concrete,” Oleksii explained.
The fortification belt in the Donetsk region, like fortifications in other regions, is usually built by the military together with civilians. Civilian construction workers are mostly responsible for areas further back from the front line, while the military works in more dangerous zones.
Russia unsuccessfully attempted to capture this fortification belt back in 2022, making repeated attempts to break through toward Sloviansk, one of the largest cities in the Donetsk region. Despite that initial failure, they have never really given up, continually trying to either bypass defensive lines or seize them.
And despite breakthroughs in the Donetsk region, they still have not managed to capture cities protected by fortifications. According to a recent report by the Institute for the Study of War, capturing the cities in the fortress belt would likely take several years and cost Russia significant human lives and material losses.
The fortifications were built with the blood and sweat of people like Oleksii. Ukrainians gave years of their lives to building these defenses, and some soldiers even sacrificed their lives to hold these positions.
That’s why it is unfathomable to think of giving them up now without a fight.
“If [the Russians] break through the fortifications, break through all the defenses, let’s say, drive us out — then we’ll have to start doing everything all over again, again, and again. As it is, we’re already almost rebuilding everything from scratch every day,” Oleksii said, with a note of despair in his voice.
While Trump has claimed Putin is eager to make a deal and end the war, Ukrainians know very well that even with a ceasefire, new regions will be under threat.
The likelihood that Putin will keep his word and a ceasefire will soon take effect is close to zero.
Instead, an open path to other regions would create a threat to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which is nowhere near as fortified as Donetsk and until recently was not considered part of the front.
It is also a threat to the Kharkiv region, which has been constantly repelling assaults since 2022.
Potential new Ukrainian defensive lines in this area would have to run through open fields. Natural obstacles like rivers are too far east to serve as defensive positions for Ukrainian forces defending the Donetsk region border.
According to Pohorilyi of DeepStateMap, it will take at least a month to build high-quality fortifications in the new areas. In addition, it would require huge amounts of resources. In 2024 alone, more than $900 million from the Ukrainian budget was spent on fortifications.
“It is always very hard when the enemy takes our fortifications, especially those well dug into the ground or poured with concrete. In that case, it’s practically impossible to drive them out afterward. They know how to use them, they have people who will hold their positions, and they have a numerical advantage. Moreover, they improve the fortifications for themselves, dig in, build them up — that’s what creates the problem,” Pohorilyi said.
Oleksii, who’s been on the front for almost three years, is exhausted by the war. He wants to return home and finally see his daughters and his wife. He said his family is the only thing that keeps him waking up, gritting his teeth, and going to cut down trees under enemy fire every day.
He wants peace, but doesn’t think giving up Donetsk would achieve that.
“Yes, we will be at home, but then the children will have to suffer again. Russians are not a nation, they are monsters. You give them [one region] now, and they will grab everything,” Oleksii said.
Ahead of the upcoming meeting between Putin and Trump in Alaska, Russia intensified fighting in the Donetsk region, advancing a record 10 kilometers in a single day in an apparent bid to put even greater political pressure on Ukraine.
Putin hopes to secure the handover of a region that Moscow has never fully controlled just to freeze the front line, without any security guarantees for Ukraine.
For soldiers like Oleksii, there’s only one thing they can be certain of.
“People [in Ukraine] are doing everything possible,” Oleksii said. “People are going above and beyond. They know why they are trying and what they are fighting for.”
*The real name of the serviceman is not disclosed in the story due to security concerns.
Editor’s note: Today’s Putin-Trump summit, taking place on American soil, is the latest sign that our reporting is more relevant than ever.
In other media outlets you will see abstract mentions of land and territory.
At The Counteroffensive we take you into the personal stories about the people affected when great powers treat smaller countries like mere chess pieces.
Not a paid subscriber yet? We need you. Upgrade now.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
By: Anastasiia Kryvoruchenko.
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
PRO-UKRAINE RALLY IN ALASKA AHEAD OF TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT: Alaskans took to the streets on August 14, on the eve of the Trump-Putin summit, the first since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Anchorage Daily News reported. People protested both against Trump's domestic policies and against the meeting itself.
Some posters read: “Putin won't stop in Ukraine.” In 1876, Russia sold Alaska to the US, but now some Russian politicians have spoken about wanting to return these territories to its control. Protests are also planned for today as Putin and Trump meet.
USAID DIDN’T MONITOR THE USE OF STARLINK IN UKRAINE: The U.S. Agency for International Development did not monitor the location and use of more than 5,000 Starlink units they sent to Ukraine, Reuters reported.
In 2022, USAID transferred more than 1,000 Starlink units they had purchased and the rest donated by SpaceX to Ukraine to support communications in wartime for critical services and utilities, but their location and use have not been tracked since then. Some of the Starlink units ended up in Russian-controlled territories.
Last year, Ukraine accused Russia of purchasing thousands of Starlinks from private Russian companies, but Musk and the Russian side denied this. Russia's acquisition of Starlink enhances its communications and intelligence capabilities, even in occupied territories.
120K UKRAINIANS IN US TO FACE DEPORTATION: 120,000 Ukrainians who fled to the US because of Russia's war in Ukraine are facing deportation, The Wall Street Journal reported.
These Ukrainians came to the US under Joe Biden's Uniting for Ukraine program. It enabled about a quarter of a million Ukrainians to quickly register in the US, as the normal refugee registration program in the country can take years. It allows refugees to legalize their stay in the US for two years, with the possibility of renewal, with the help of a sponsor who is willing to accept them.
When the Trump administration came to the White House, it canceled the program and made it impossible for those already registered under it to renew their status. On Friday, the residence permits of more than 100,000 Ukrainians will begin to expire on a rolling basis, and those whose permits expire will be considered illegal immigrants.
DOG OF WAR:
Today’s Dog of War is Mukha – Nastia’s grandparents' dog.
She saw her when she came to visit her family in Vinnytsia region during vacation. The doggie was doing her morning yoga exercise and enjoying the sun.
Stay safe out there.
Best,
Mariana, Tania and Nastia
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It needs to be repeated to the world constantly because it seems some people either still don’t get it or want to convince themselves otherwise: Vladimir Putin does not believe Ukraine should exist as a sovereign country. The entire country. Every action taken by Putin and his regime is with the ultimate goal of extinguishing a sovereign country.
Thanks for this article. I had never heard of this vital defence line for Ukraine. You mustn't give it up !