Physical Evidence of the 2014-2024 War in Ukraine

BBC: 'Satellite images reveal Russian defences before major assault' 22nd May 2023.

Satellite analysis by BBC Verify has uncovered some of the extensive defences built by Russia as it prepares for a major Ukrainian counter-attack. [...] By examining hundreds of satellite images, the BBC has identified some key points in the significant build-up of trenches and other fortifications in southern Ukraine since October.

The traces of these landscape features will constitute part of the physical evidence left behind for posterity by the Russian invasion that will be confronted with the earlier claims that this was not a revanchist colonial landgrab, but an attempt to 'protect' the Russian Federation and effect some kind of "denazification" and "demilitarisation".   

Original: BBC

Meanwhile distant armchair generals can choose the route they'd attack if they were in charge. I have two... From the layout of fortifications, it is clear that Russia anticipates one of them, but I'm curious to know how feasible the other actually is on the ground... |

The map is a bit of a cheat actually, the main footwork seems to have been done by Brady Africk ('Russian field fortifications in Ukraine" 18th May 2023) and there is a link there to an interactive map that shows the individual satellite photos (incidentally Ukrainian field fortifications also show up here, but mapping them was not the purpose of this exercise. Fortifications were only included if they appeared new, in-use or expanded since the full-scale invasion in February of 2022. For the full interactive map, click here.