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Ukrainian Armed Forces Continue to Improve Defense in Depth Near Odessa
Published 2 years ago
A mine-laying vehicle from the Ukrainian Military is spotted laying in a large number of landmines on one of the potential beachheads near the city of Odessa.
Since the beginning of the invasion, the Ukrainian port city of Odessa has been on the Russian's radar as a key location to control in the South. Over the weeks and months, we've seen large scale Russian naval activity in the area suggesting that the Russian intend to conduct a beach landing. Seeing this projected force, the Ukrainians have responded by building a defense in depth inside of the city in an attempt to not only dissuade attack, but to make it obvious that a landing there would be costly for Russian forces.
Defense in depth is an elastic military strategy designed to give and take ground from the enemy to buy yourself time while inflicting more casualties on an attacking enemy. Strategically speaking, when one thinks of a beach-landing defense, they thinking back to Omaha and Normandy beaches, where the German forces built a solid line of defense to throwback their attackers. The problem with this style of defense however is that it leaves nowhere for your troops to fall back to and continue defending once the initial line is broken in a single place. With defense in depth, the defenders have more elasticity in their defensive capabilities, making it possible for a smaller group of defenders to hold off a larger attacking force simply by preventing them from gaining momentum on any one front.
For weeks we have seen the Ukrainians, both Civilian and Military alike, building defensive positions throughout the city of Odessa with tank traps, dug-in fighting positions, and caltrops. We have also seen mines placed at key landing points, and now potential beach heads are being mined to prevent armor from being brought ashore to support infantry movements inland. Every day that the Russians continue to wait, the more defensive the city of Odessa becomes, and the more likely a Russian naval landing becomes tactically impossible.
