Already in 2022, the Russians began to throw a significant amount of resources into the construction of fortifications in the occupied Ukrainian territories. Ukraine, making more bets on a counteroffensive, paid much less attention to the issue of fortifications in the east and south, concentrating mainly on the north in terms of defense. However, the situation at the front and the active offensive actions of the enemy in Donetsk region and the Kupiansk direction seem to have forced the country’s military-political leadership to reconsider its strategy. On November 30, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi held a meeting on the construction of fortifications.

The head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleg Synehubov has already reported on the construction of fortifications in the region.

According to him, 1.2 billion hryvnias were planned for the needs of Ukrainian defenders from the regional budget in 2023. More than 400 million hryvnias from this sum should cover the regional program on territorial defense in 2022-2023. The construction of 64 fortifications costing 83 million hryvnias is being completed with the funds of this program.

The simplest analysis of the contracts of Kharkiv Military Administration in the registers shows that much more money was spent on defense and fortification in the region. This is explained by the fact that a significant part of the costs were covered with money not only from the local, but also from the state budget directly. The contractors were large developers, as well as new companies, including those with Russian roots.