Ukraine has spent nearly €1 billion on fortifications over the past year to halt Russian advances. But as Moscow’s forces capture ground at their fastest pace in months, serious concerns are mounting over whether the investment is delivering results where it’s needed most, Politico reports.

A shift in strategy to match Russian tactics

Facing a change in Russian tactics — smaller assault units backed by drones — Ukraine is rethinking how it fortifies its defenses. Instead of long, linear trench systems, the military is now building compact, concealed strongpoints better suited for modern warfare.

“The most effective position is a maximum of one detachment,” said Army Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.

He describes how smaller trench groups and foxholes with anti-drone protection have replaced sprawling 2–5 km lines. These newer positions are typically 60–70 meters long and designed to avoid detection by surveillance drones.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov called the new system “an adaptive engineering approach” that considers enemy tactics and focuses on protecting soldiers.

€1 billion spent — but uneven results

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced earlier this year that the government allocated 46.2 billion hryvnia (€930 million) to build 3,000 defensive points, including in areas not yet under active assault.

Despite that investment, Ukrainian analysts and frontline troops say implementation is inconsistent and often delayed. In Dnipro, local governments and military units worked in sync to build three solid lines of defense. But in critical regions like Sumy and Kharkiv, the situation remains chaotic.

“What is happening in Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts is a mess,” said Roman Pohorilyi, co-founder of OSINT group DeepState. “Hardly anybody knows who is responsible for what.”

He cited examples of poorly placed trenches, unused dragon’s teeth, and incomplete barriers.

Troops still digging under fire

Even with the €1 billion spend, much of the dangerous work is still being done manually by frontline troops. “Ukrainian servicemen still have to dig the first line of trenches with shovels and during active fighting,” Syrskyi acknowledged.

And without enough personnel, even the best-designed fortifications are ineffective.

“If there are no servicemen in the fortification or their number is insufficient… it does not play its role,” Syrskyi said.

Delays that cost the front

Ukrainian forces operating in Russia’s Kursk Oblast say they bought time for defenses to be built in Sumy — but that time wasn’t used effectively.

“We gave time to prepare the border area… but they hardly used it with 100 percent efficiency,” said soldier Artem Kariakin.

Key infrastructure, such as anti-drone nets, was installed only in January, after months of drone attacks. Fortifications were constructed after Ukrainian troops began retreating, rendering many of them strategically obsolete.

Russia exploiting gaps as it advances

Russian forces are probing Ukraine’s lines for weak spots and concentrating their attacks where defenses are thin.

“Russians push everywhere, probe for weak and problematic places… and start piercing,” Pohorilyi said.

In June alone, Russia seized 500 square kilometers of territory — the fastest advance in months, according to DeepState.

Conclusion: Strategy sound, execution lagging

Ukraine’s updated fortification approach reflects modern battlefield realities. But the combination of understaffed trenches, disjointed planning, and delayed execution has blunted the impact of a €1 billion investment. As one soldier put it, success “all depends on the commander” — and too often, that leadership has come too late.

Today, there are interesting updates from the Kostiantynivka direction, Donetsk Oblast.

Here, after facing repeated humiliating setbacks at Pokrovsk, the Russian command redirected their offensive toward Kostiantynivka, as they collided with the Ukrainian defense line. The Russians sent a massive assault group with dozens armored vehicles to break through, but were funneled into a devastating kill zone. 

The goal of Russian forces west of Kostiantynivka is to achieve a decisive penetration through Ukrainian defensive lines, creating opportunities to outflank and encircle both Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka simultaneously. This would disrupt Ukrainian defenses across two crucial sectors, potentially destabilizing a massive portion of the frontline. 

Following a relatively rapid Russian advance in this area last month, Ukrainian forces swiftly redeployed elite units to stall further gains, successfully buying time for reserves to reinforce secondary defense lines. Despite incremental Russian progress since the initial breakthrough, Ukrainian defenders succeeded in slowing down enemy momentum, preventing the frontline collapse that Russia urgently sought. Now, Russian forces find themselves confronting fortified Ukrainian positions to the southwest of Kostiantynivka, where they’ve been unable to advance further over the past two weeks.

The Russians currently hold one significant advantage, the establishment of a bridgehead across the important Bychok River. This allows them to transfer larger numbers of troops and equipment across the water barrier, increasing their offensive potential and the intensity of their attacks.

The geographic position of the bridgehead offers flexibility for attacks against Kostiantynivka or Pokrovsk, but given limited resources, Russian commanders seem focused primarily on pushing toward Kostiantynivka. This tactical choice also threatens the nearby Ukrainian defense lines near Toretsk, increasing the reward of any successful maneuver for the Russians.

However, Ukrainian defenses around Kostiantynivka are robust and carefully designed, significantly shaping Ukrainian tactics and granting a decisive defensive advantage. Elaborate anti-tank ditches and natural terrain features effectively funnel Russian forces along the heavily fortified Pokrovsk-Kostiantynivka highway. 

Ukrainian engineers have constructed a sophisticated network of layered fortifications along this critical road, establishing a formidable defense in depth. Additionally, rows of dragon teeth along the highway serve as concrete barriers to halt Russian armored assaults, while hidden Ukrainian positions in the fortifications deliver devastating fire. Ukrainian artillery and drone operators wait in concealed positions, ready to unleash intense fire on enemy formations entering these well-prepared kill zones.

Faced with mounting difficulties and aware of the increasingly reinforced Ukrainian positions, the Russian command opted for a desperate gamble. They planned to launch one large-scale mechanized assault rather than their more typical smaller infiltration tactics they had been relying on recently. Hoping to surprise and overwhelm Ukrainian defenders, the Russians dispatched one of the largest mechanized columns seen in this sector for months, consisting of at least 23 armored vehicles and over a dozen motorcycles. 

However, the column drove directly into a carefully prepared Ukrainian kill zone along the fortified highway. To avoid running into mines on the road itself, the Russians drove beside it, but the Ukrainian minefields extended into the fields, destroying several of their vehicles. The battle was brutal and chaotic, lasting over 3 hours as Ukrainians obliterated this massive Russian assault part by part. Ukrainian FPV drone operators and artillery systematically dismantled the Russian formation as it struggled to advance due to the obstacles. 

The engineer vehicle destined to clear a path through the dragon’s teeth was destroyed, as were the soldiers on motorcycles that could have blown a path through them with explosives, causing the Russian armor to bunch up and be devastated by artillery. Of the approximately twenty-five armored vehicles engaged, eighteen were decisively destroyed. 

Some of them detonated on carefully placed anti-tank mines; others, attempting to escape Ukrainian fire, panicked and drove directly into anti-tank ditches, becoming stationary targets swiftly finished off by Ukrainian drones. Nearly two hundred Russian troops were killed in the failed assault, underscoring the catastrophic nature of failing an attempted breakthrough.

Overall, while Russian forces initially achieved limited success southwest of Kostiantynivka, the newly improved and manned Ukrainian defensive setup decisively halted the recent ambitious mechanized assault. The scale of losses incurred in this latest attack represents another severe setback for Russian commanders, reflecting both poor operational planning and underestimation of Ukrainian preparations.

Nevertheless, previous patterns suggest that Russians will regroup and return, refusing to abandon their objective. Ukrainian commanders expect that Russia is already mobilizing additional units and equipment, preparing another offensive effort against the long coveted Kostiantynivka sector.

In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.