Howard Altman
In a sign that it is digging in to blunt Ukraine’s now nine-day-old invasion of Kursk Oblast, Russia is building trenches near the town of Lgov, about 30 miles north of the border, according to Maxar satellite imagery provided to The War Zone on Wednesday. The construction comes as Ukrainian forces are pushing their way northward from the area of territory they currently control.
Lgov is about 13 miles north of the most recently geolocated position of Ukrainian troop concentrations, according to imagery analyzed on Tuesday by the Institute for the Study of War. It is also about 15 miles to the west of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Kurchetov. The trenches are being built parallel to the E38 highway, according to Maxar. That is a key east-west artery cutting across the middle of Kursk and connects Lgov to Kurchetov.
Maxar captured the images on Aug. 12. There aren’t any apparent additional fortifications associated with the trenches, which were constructed in the last week. However, it appears to be less extensive than the massive networks Russia was able to build up in the year leading to last year’s failed Ukrainian counteroffensive which played a big role in halting it. Given that Ukrainian forces are still a good distance away, the area is most likely not yet mined, but that can’t be assessed from the satellite images. However, should Ukraine reach this far, it will have control of a great deal more territory than it does now.
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