The ISW Briefing Room: Season 2 Episode 1

Ukraine continues to hold the frontline four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion. The cornerstone of a militarily defensible frontline in eastern Ukraine is its Fortress Belt, a concentration of four large cities Russia hasn’t been able to seize since 2014.

In this video, ISW’s Director of Innovation and Open Source Tradecraft, George Barros, explains why the fortress belt is optimized for defense across nearly every possible topographical and geographical characteristic relevant for military terrain analysis. If Russia were to gain control over the Fortress Belt, Moscow would occupy favorable lines for launching drives into vulnerable terrain that significantly favors attacking forces over defenders. It is for these reasons that the Kremlin’s negotiation strategy seeks to secure a political settlement in which Ukraine would surrender the Fortress Belt’s critical terrain without a fight.