“There is a lack of brains and skills.” Commander Azov criticized the approach to building fortifications at the front

He announced this on his Facebook page.

“Lately, there is quite a lot of speculation about the fortification equipment of defense lines: “Money is being stolen!”, “There is no equipment!”, “There are not enough resources!”, “There are not enough people!”. There is a lack of brains and skills,” says the military man.

According to him, during 2024, Azov carried out stabilization actions in the Lymansky and Toretsk directions. However, while gaining new positions, the brigade discovered that “the problem is much broader and more multifaceted than simply the lack of human or technical resources.”

In one case, it had to be changed “a hodgepodge of units from stillborn brigades.”

“In the second case, in the literal sense of the word, I advised one of the brigade commanders to bury the pointlessly dug strongholds, but he did not do it. After a short period of time, they were lost and served as an excellent shelter for the enemy,” said Prokopenko.

In the third case, the defense system was absent as such, says the military. He noted that it was 2023-2024, and now there is equipment and resources, and construction companies are hiring.

“What is the problem? The answer is very simple. The officers stopped thinking: either they were not trained, or people “thought” for them, who did not go out to reconnoitre the area of ​​that frontier and to fire a cannon! Even with the availability of resources, without knowing the fundamental basics of organization and construction of defense (where and how to dig?), there will be no stability,” writes commander Azov.

Prokopenko believes that “very soon” the Russians will turn all these resources into ashes.

“They will not fulfill their function of protecting and preserving the lives of personnel, the imaginary line of defense will turn into a passage yard,” the military officer emphasized.

Prokopenko also offered the officers free instructional and methodical classes based on his own examples on the fortification of defense lines and the organization of a defensive battle.

Problems with the construction of fortifications in Ukraine — what is known

On December 13, 2024, Volodymyr Husar, Deputy Chief of Engineering Forces of the Support Forces Command, denied problems with the construction of fortifications.

According to him, the military units and units that are on the front line and carry out the construction of fortifications are provided with all the necessary materials. He also noted that fortifications are being built on other frontiers as well.

On December 10, the Financial Times wrote that Ukrainian law enforcement officers opened 30 criminal cases based on the facts of possible embezzlement during the construction of fortifications, the total losses from which are estimated at 483 million dollars (UAH 20.1 billion). The publication also reported that the construction is complicated by delays and lack of coordination.

In November, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, Serhii Rakhmanin, in an interview with Radio NV, noted that the situation with the construction of fortifications is complex, confusing and motley: there are places where they are being built effectively, but there are places where fortifications are being erected chaotic and unclear.

Communications specialist Oleksandr Solonko said that during the construction of fortifications, Ukraine makes systemic mistakes that Russia does not, in particular, quite often the entrance to the fortifications is not disguised, which exposes the military to danger.

On January 4, a military scout with the call sign Pilgrim described the situation with the fortifications in the Pokrovsky direction in an interview with Radio NV “sabotage”. He expressed confidence that the money for the construction of these fortifications was “written off”, and also recalled a video showing how “dragon’s teeth are lying around, just in a pile” in Myrnograd.