Russia’s military has built up anti-tank defenses in eastern Crimea, far from the front lines in southern Ukraine but close to internationally recognized Russian territory that would be threatened if the Ukrainians swept through the peninsula, new footage indicates.
Video clips shared on Monday by Atesh, a military movement of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, appear to show lines of dragon’s teeth defenses near Feodosia. This city is on the eastern edge of the annexed Crimean peninsula, to the southwest of the Kerch Strait linking the disputed territory to Russia.
Moscow has controlled Crimea since 2014, and used the peninsula to attack mainland Ukraine throughout the months since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Kyiv has repeatedly vowed to retake Crimea.
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Crimea would be the ultimate goal for Ukrainian forces now slowly working their way south through the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, also annexed by Russia but not entirely controlled by Moscow.
Dragon’s teeth are not a new phenomenon and are concrete blocks used to halt tank advances and prevent mechanized infantry from gaining territory. They are a classic military tactic, and not overly difficult to remove with the right resources, but they do slow down an offensive like Ukraine has mounted in southern Ukraine and concentrate Kyiv’s fighters in one area.
Many months before the Ukrainian counteroffensive in these regions got underway in early June, the U.K. government said Russia had already started placing dragon’s teeth around the captured Donetsk city of Mariupol, as well as throughout occupied swathes of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
“This activity suggests Russia is making a significant effort to prepare defenses in depth behind their current front line, likely to forestall any rapid Ukrainian advances in the event of breakthroughs,” the British Defense Ministry said in November 2022.
Satellite images captured in the first months of 2023 showed that Russia had placed lines of dragon’s teeth across northern and western parts of Crimea. These are the closest to Russian-controlled mainland Ukrainian territory. This included rows of dragon’s teeth to the north of Dzhankoi, a key Russian military-logistics hub.
“The Russian military, apparently, understands that Crimea will have to be defended in the near future,” Russian military analyst Ian Matveev told The Washington Post in April 2023.
Open-source intelligence accounts have shared the footage published by Atesh, which appears to have captured the dragon’s teeth northeast of Feodosia.
They are around 16 kilometers, or 10 miles, from the town, and are at the narrowest point of the Kerch Peninsula, according to Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst with the Hague Centre for Security Studies.
If Ukraine did sweep through Crimea, this would be a good spot for Russia to head off a Ukrainian advance through the Kerch Peninsula, he told Newsweek.
“This would be the logical fallback position for Russian forces retreating from the North,” he added. “Here, they could again make a stand and gather strength for a counteroffensive.”
But it is hard to tell whether dragon’s teeth across Crimea’s eastern flank is an indication of well-prepared Russian defenses in the event of an emergency or a “defeatist” attitude, Mertens said.
“You certainly don’t exude confidence if you prepare defenses so far to your rear, but on the other hand, a good general will always consider security and will have his plans for a worst-case scenario,” Mertens added.
Much of this hinges on how well-constructed the eastern Crimean defenses are, and whether Russia should have invested in strengthening its positions elsewhere, he said.
The Atesh group also said it had located seven S-300 Russian air-defense systems and new fortifications around the Gvardeyskoye air base in Crimea.
Russia is transferring air-defense equipment to the inland Crimean city of Simferopol and bolstering its defensive structures, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center, which is linked to Ukraine’s military, said earlier this week.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.