Clément Molin Profile picture
Apr 4 18 tweets 7 min read Read on X
100 km of kill zone, let's dive inside one of Ukraine's 🇺🇦 best defensive line

The Verkhnya Tersa line -with only 18 crossing over 100km- is one of the strongest and best prepared fortified line in Ukraine. Here is a detailed analysis :

🧵THREAD🧵1/18⬇️ Image
First "New Donbas Line" style prepared in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk region, this line is covered north of Novomykolaivka by 3 other lines, while only one before Novomykolaivka.

South of it, this line is the first defensive line, only protected by older line and barbed wire.Image
Here is a video from few months ago of the central part of this line, the one protecting Novomykolaivka.

This area of around 25 km is the most ready on the 100 km of that particular line. North of Novomykolaivka, barbed wire has not been installed, the frontline is too far.
As you can see, there are 18 rows of barbed wire on 6 different lines, including 3 at the bottom of anti-tank ditches and one on top of draon teeths.

There are as well three anti-tank ditches and anti-vehicle obstacles, the dragon teeths.

This is an obtsacle line. Image
Here is a closer view of a road, which is let open to allow logistics.

If the line is a problem for Russia, it can quickly become one for Ukraine as well, making any movement more difficult. We could see Ukraine forced to breach its one lines... Image
The revolution of these new lines are that they even cover forest, ponds and rivers. No more holes are let behind, except the prepared ones.

In total, 18 roads for 100 km is one every 5.5 km, but if we take only the part of the line south of Novomykolaivka, it's one every 6.6 km Image
With a 90° rotation, we can see how this line is meant to secure a large countryside area. Just behind are lying more than 170 small hidden positions for soldiers and drone teams. Image
To understand the scale of the line, here is where it is in Ukraine. This line is not even the longest continous one. For example, a line going from Ternuvate to Sloviansk is 250 km long !

Ones under construction could be even longer. Image
Here is a closer view of the weaker part of the line. South of Novomykolaivka, Ukraine switches from 3 to 2 anti-tank ditches (they are doing this when they don't have the time to dig a full line).

You can see a new line under construction west and few barbed wires. Image
Russia will be forced to push into open terrain with a lot of barbed wire. All this area will be under ukrainien fire control, which will be safe from infiltrations and attacks behind their lines.

These fields will create high attrition for russians that will struggle to push. Image
This strategy is being prepared everywhere with 3 to 6 lines !

Overall, we can see a grid being formed as I already talked about it in the past. Image
Let's get back to more recent images. Everyday that passes is an occasion to better the defenses. Ukrainian counter-attacks near Pokrovsk'e allowed the placement of 4 rows of barded wire which are roughly 100 meter large !

This was made to fill the holes in the lone ditch line. Image
Here too, we can see multiple rows of barbed wire being placed, both around a line that is under construction and also in the middle of fields. Image
To cover the roads, the ukrainians are now also digging a small corridor of around 100 meter along key roads, which will complicate the crossing of these roads. Image
In the north, Ukraine is now adopting 4 lines of barbed wire + 3 lines of ditches. This will be extremely deadly to cross. Image
Image
The last things : positions. The ukrainian forces are preparing small trenches that will be hidden in summer.

These are bunkers to hide infantry/drone teams... Other positions are everywhere as well. Image
Thanks for following this analysis on a particular sector of the defensive lines.

This line is interesting because it's finished, continuous and well built. If you want, I can do same for other lines, just tell me which ones ! Image
For the ones that are still saying that I'm helping Russia :
-I'm doing this in an analytical way, to understand where Russia will attack and Ukraine defend
-Ukrainian forces will need to know where are the safe roads, I can help them
-Russian forces are losing hundred of recon drones above these areas everyday, they know everything
-These are public images, accessible by everyone
-I'm doing same for Russia, but they are not digging any big line
-Russian bloggers are already doing their own maps, example : opor_2014

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More from @clement_molin

May 22
Situation préoccupante à l'ouest d'Houlialpole dans le sud de l'Ukraine, où la Russie a lancé plus de 1 000 frappes aériennes ces 20 derniers jours.

La précision des frappes, environ 80%, et leur localisation montrent que l'armée russe met d'importants moyens dans la région. ⬇️ Image
A titre de comparaison, voici les frappes aériennes durant le mois d'avril dans la zone : Image
Et celles en février/mars :

On remarque bien le déplacement vers l'ouest. Image
Read 5 tweets
May 22
Russia 🇷🇺 is shutting the Rostov-Crimea road for civilian traffic after multiple ukrainian 🇺🇦 strikes hit this critical road

More strikes are also hitting the Mariupol-Donetsk highway. Right now, all the land corridor to Crimea is threatened.

🧵THREAD🧵1/10 ⬇️ Image
This map is made thanks to multiple geolocations from : @99Dominik_ @blinzka @carse_n @dmitrij46839 @federicoborsar1 @franfran2424 @GarbuzYe @hochu_dodomu @klinger66 @Kukulkan415 @MaxximOSINT @moklasen @neonhandrail @AndrewPerpetua @NotWoofers @tom_bike @VyshnyaOstap (among others) and my own geolocations.

I have a total of 73 trucks hit since march, but I believe this is barely 20% of the real numbers, since most of the results are not filmed and multiple videos cannot be geolocalized.
More and more videos from southern Ukraine are showing the results of Ukraine's middle strikes, mainly done with Hornet drones as well as long range FPV drones, which can now reach 50 km.
Read 10 tweets
May 20
These last 2 months, Ukraine 🇺🇦 dug 1 300 km of fortifications from Kyiv to Odesa

In the eastern part of the country, the AFU can now rely on 2 to 6 defensive lines, with kilometers of obstacle lines extending behind the front.

🧵THREAD🧵1/24⬇️ Image
When we talked about fortifications in Ukraine from 2014 to 2024, we were talking about those large trenches in the middle of the fields.

Drone war has made those completely obsolete. I put here famous ones, try to find where they are : Image
Image
Image
Image
Today's fortifications are much different. The priority is not to hide soldiers, but to prevent the ennemy from advancing.

That's why those new defensive lines are composed of 3 anti-vehicle ditches filled with anti-infantry barbed wire and multiple barbed wire lines. Image
Read 24 tweets
May 17
Si l'armée ukrainienne frappe de plus en plus le territoire russe 🇷🇺, l'armée russe poursuit et intensifie sa campagne de frappes sur l'Ukraine.

Cette carte présente une bonne partie des frappes de drones longue portée et quelques missiles depuis janvier 2026.

🧵THREAD🧵1/11 ⬇️ Image
Chaque jour, l'armée russe frappe le territoire ukrainien avec des centaines de drones kamikazes Shahed iranien (fabriqués en Russie sous le nom de Geran), mais aussi des leurres, comme les Gerbera ou les Parody.

On constate une augmentation progressive des frappes. Image
Après deux mois records, nous nous dirigeons progressivement vers un nouveau record avec probablement plus de 7 000 frappes de drones stratégiques en mai 2026.

Attention, il faut bien garder à l'esprit qu'environ 30 à 40% de ces drones sont en réalités des leurres. Image
Read 11 tweets
May 16
On Ukraine's 🇺🇦 southern front, Russian 🇷🇺 forces are pushing near Orikhiv, while ukrainian forces continue to launch cleaning operations.

The Russian army has intensified its attempts to push the front, while the ukrainians reinforced their fortifications.

🧵THREAD🧵1/13 ⬇️ Image
The southern/south-esatern front of Ukraine is the one that saw the biggest change since 2024 started.

This front is currently the second most important for Russia (1st is Donbas, 3rd is the Oskil).

Maps in the thread are from @M0nstas's online map. Image
Image
In the Novopavlivka-Ivanivka area west of Pokrovsk, Russia is trying to capture ukrainian strongholds in the region.

They have a lot of difficulties due to the number of ditches, fortified lines and rivers. In Novopavlivka, infiltration attempts continue without much success.

On the first (unfinished) fortified line, russian forces are trying to cross under fire the ditches (more than 100 bodies are lying there) and constantly manage to advance to Ivanivka before getting destroyed.Image
Read 13 tweets
May 14
Behind the Oskil River, the Ukrainian 🇺🇦 army is still holding out in three pockets: Kupiansk, Borova, and Lyman.

The Russian 🇷🇺 army has intensified its infiltrations in Lyman and Kupiansk in recent weeks, using the cover of trees.

🧵THREAD🧵1/10 ⬇️ Image
In four years, the Oskil front (named after the river crossed in October 2022) has barely moved.

Russian forces have mainly succeeded in advancing in three directions: toward Senkove, cutting the front in two; then toward Lyman, cutting it in three; and finally toward Dvorichna. Image
Image
Near Lyman, russian forces are launching important infiltrations, using the tree cover in the region.

They are mainly pushing south and north of the city, some soldiers even crossed the Siverski Donets river. The main objective is to cut the city from the rear. Image
Read 10 tweets

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