The Soviets proved to be true masters of entrenchment during World War II.. Russian engineers have created a dense system of fortifications to try to stall the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

What are dragon teeth

Part of that system is based on dragon teeth. These are square pyramidal anti-tank obstacles made of reinforced concrete. Its purpose, as the Russians did in that world war, is to slow down and direct the enemy's tanks towards deadly areas where they can be easily eliminated by anti-tank weapons.

In World War II, land mines were often placed between the prongs and other obstacles were built along the prong lines, such as barbed wire to prevent infantry from passing or diagonally placed steel beams to make it even more difficult. plus the passing of the tanks.

Dragon teeth were used in that conflict by several armies. The Germans used dragon teeth on the Siegfried Line and the Atlantic Wall. In his case, each pyramid was between 90 and 120 cm tall. They were also placed by the United Kingdom between 1940 and 1941, to reinforce its defenses against a hypothetical German invasion.

Since when are they used in the Ukrainian war

It seems like an ancient procedure, which could be easily circumvented by the new technologies of modern weapons, but the dragon's teeth are effective.. Putin's commanders used them as early as October 2022.

In Belgorod Oblast they built defensive lines of dragon teeth along the Russian-Ukrainian border. They were intended as a second line of defense next to the trenches and with a trained militia in case the Ukrainian soldiers broke through the Russian border.. By the way, on that occasion the work was done under the supervision of the Wagner Group.

In fact, this paramilitary group (led until a few weeks ago by Eugeny Prigozhin) tried to build the so-called Wagner Line in Hirske, in the Luhansk province, using dragon's teeth. As of November 2022, the Russians had fortified the region around Melitopol, south of Kherson, in the Mariupol, Nikolske and Staryi Krym area.

The Wagner Defense with Dragon's Teeth

The Wagner Line was intended to be created when it was Russia that was advancing on Ukrainian territory, but now it is facing the kyiv counteroffensive. With the same philosophy, but a different objective (to resist), Moscow decided in April to protect 800 kilometers with a series of fortifications.

They pose a significant tactical challenge to Ukrainian offensive operations.”

Trenches, ditches, bunkers, concrete machine gun towers and dragon's teeth are the tools that putin's forces in motion across a vast terrain so that the response of Volodimir Zelensky's troops with Western support came to nothing.

Dragon's teeth against the kyiv offensive

These engineering feats include concrete-lined trenches, barbed wire, anti-tank ditches, and abundant anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, and “pose a significant tactical challenge to Ukrainian offensive operations,” according to an expert report from the Royal United Services Institute of Greater Britain (RUSI).

Each Russian brigade has two engineer companies; one focuses on the construction of fortifications, while the other places and removes mines, details the RUSI report, based on interviews with Ukrainian commanders.. The total depth of the defensive fortifications exceeds 30 kilometers in some axes.

How are the Russian defensive fortifications

There is a first line of infantry trenches; behind, a second line of trenches and concrete firing points, protected by multiple obstacle belts, each about 800 meters wide. They are made up of barbed wire, dragon's teeth and anti-tank ditches about 6 meters wide and 7 meters deep.

The second line is not permanently manned, but consists of company-sized positions in wooded or elevated areas, positioned so that the defenses are completely covered by fire.. The third line, about 5 kilometers from the initial line, consists of withdrawal positions and hidden areas for reserves.

The problem of Russian mines

And mines, a lot of mines (the Russians have a lot, according to the RUSI). The report gives one example: Russian minefields helped repel a recent attack that destroyed several of the new Leopard 2 tanks and Bradley 2 infantry fighting vehicles, both supplied by the West to Ukraine.

Their removal will be complicated because, the report says, Russian mines “rarely follow a discernible pattern and are rarely marked.” In addition, Russia did not sign the 1997 Ottawa Treaty banning antipersonnel mines, which has allowed its forces to “freely use victim-made antipersonnel mines.”

All indications are that the Ukrainians will continue to detonate mines long after Putin's troops have left, defense writer Michael Peck told Business Insider.

King Mohamed VI of Morocco called this Saturday for “a return to normality” in relations with its neighbor Algeria, a country with which diplomatic ties have been broken since 2021 against the background of the Western Sahara conflict.

In a speech addressed to the nation on the occasion of the Feast of the Throne, which commemorates the 24th anniversary of his enthronement, the monarch stressed that his country “will never be the source of any harm or harm” for Algeria.

“We also want to convey to you the enormous importance we attach to the bonds of affection, friendship, exchange and communication between the two peoples,” Mohamed VI said in his speech, broadcast on the country's public television and radio stations.

In the section on international relations, the monarch dedicated a good part to his neighbor in the Maghreb and described relations between the two countries as “stable”, while expressing his wish that they “improve”.

“We implore Almighty God for everything to return to normal, and for the borders to be opened between our two neighboring and brother countries and peoples,” he asserted.

It is not the first time that the King of Morocco has reached out to Algeria and has already done so in previous speeches.

Algeria severed relations with Morocco in August 2021 due to the Western Sahara conflict, among other disagreements, and subsequently decided to close its airspace to Moroccan aircraft. In addition, both countries have kept their land borders closed since 1994.

The two North African neighbors maintain an old rivalry in the region due mainly to Algiers' open support for the Polisario Front, which seeks the independence of the Saharawi territory and is based in the Tindouf camps (in southern Algeria).

Japan “faces the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II,” Tokyo says.

A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman, Tan Kefei, has lamented Japan's “wrong approach and perception” towards China in which it “deliberately exaggerates” the Chinese military threat without regard to its “self-defense”.. It also involves “interference” in Chinese internal affairs, according to the Chinese news portal Global Times.

Tan stressed that China “has always been a force for maintaining world peace and stability without ever challenging or threatening anyone.”

In contrast, Japan in recent years has “repeatedly breached the limits of its 'peace constitution' and the principle of exclusively defense-oriented policy” by increasing military spending and developing counter-attack capabilities.. In particular, he reproaches Japan for its alignment with “certain great powers”, in reference to the United States.

For this reason, it has called on Japan to abandon its zero-sum, confrontational position and promote understanding of China.. “It is essential to respect commitments on important issues such as Taiwan and exercise prudence in the field of security and defense,” he argued.

An Italian man scaled Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain and plunged into the water to the applause of dozens of tourists, who watched and filmed the breach before police apprehended him.

The event happened on Thursday night and several of the videos, in which the man is observed accessing the monument, climbing it and swimming in it without any resistance, were widely disseminated on social networks.

This is a 48-year-old Italian who received a fine of 450 euros in addition to a complaint for public disorder, according to the local press.

“It is no longer tolerable. This is pure barbarism that we do not want to ignore, as well as the complicit applause of those present is very worrying,” protested the Rome councilor for tourism and major events, Alessandro Onorato.

The inhabitants of Rome have spent months denouncing the excesses committed by some tourists against their heritage in the height of the high season.

In the last month, up to three people have been denounced for damaging the Colosseum in Rome by inscribing their names on the walls, the latest case being that of a 17-year-old German student who was traveling with a teacher and was caught scratching a wall. .

This new case came to light a few hours after it became known that a 17-year-old Swiss girl was videotaped while writing the initial of her name on one of the walls of the Colosseum, as happened a few weeks ago with another tourist from From United Kingdom.

Both offenders were denounced and face a fine of up to 15,000 euros for damage to cultural property.

The mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, expressed his “joy and emotion” at the news of the location, thanks to the DNA test, of “grandson 133”, stolen by the Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983), and who is the third son of Cristina Navajas and Julio Santucho, an Argentine citizen exiled in Rome for many years, along with his other two children.

“The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo have found another child who has become an adult, “grandson 133″, the umpteenth victim that the fierce Argentine dictatorship took from his mother since birth,” the mayor explained today in a statement.

“The fight and rejection of any form of anti-democratic regime must continue throughout the world, today more than ever.. And the memory of what happened in Argentina must remain alive, always at the side of those who have been fighting bravely for decades so that nothing is forgotten and that thousands of people are recognized for their true identity,” added the councilor.

He also announced that “Rome will also continue to do its part” and that “last May a mosaic was inaugurated in Esquilino Square, right in front of the Argentine Embassy, in honor of the battle waged by these extraordinary grandmothers.”

“I send a big hug to Julio Santucho who has found a son again,” added Gualtieri.

A few days ago, accompanied by the Santucho family, the head of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, announced the discovery of the grandson of Nélida Gómez de Navajas, who died in 2012 and who was raised by a member of the security forces and a nurse, who hid from her that he was not her biological son.

Before the pandemic, he himself approached Abuelas, with doubts about his origin.

Nicolás Petro, the eldest son of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, has been arrested by order of the Colombian Prosecutor's Office for the alleged crimes of money laundering and illicit enrichment.

The Prosecutor's Office has also requested the capture of Nicolás Petro's ex-partner, Day Vásquez, for money laundering, violation of personal data.

“The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation is allowed to inform that today, July 29, 2023, at around 6:00 a.m., in compliance with the provisions of the 16th Municipal Criminal Court with the Function of Guarantee Control of Bogotá, the arrest warrants issued against Nicolás Fernando Petro Burgos (…) and Daysuris del Carmen Vásquez Castro (…) for events that occurred from 2022 to date,” the entity said in a statement.

Petro and Vásquez will be placed at the disposal of a municipal criminal judge with a function of guarantee control, who will be asked to impart legality to the search, capture and seizure procedures of material elements of evidence.

In response to this arrest, the Colombian president has published a message on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, in which he acknowledges that “so much self-destruction hurts me a lot and the fact that one of my sons goes to jail.”

In any case, he assures that the Prosecutor's Office will have “all the guarantees on my part to proceed in accordance with the law”. “As I stated before the attorney general, I will not intervene or pressure his decisions; let the law freely guide the process,” he stressed.

I wish my son luck and strength.. May these events forge his character and may he reflect on his own mistakes,” said the Colombian president.

South Korea and the United States have carried out joint maneuvers this Saturday with the participation of the North American nuclear submarine deployed to the south of the peninsula, whose presence has been the subject of warnings from North Korea in the form of ballistic tests.

The submarine warfare exercises have been carried out on Jeju Island and the South Korean destroyer 'Yulgok Yi I', the South Korean submarine 'Yi Sun Sin' and the North American nuclear submarine 'Annapolis' have participated in them.

The exercises have raised “response procedures in the search, tracking and identification” of a hypothetical North Korean submarine, according to the statement published by the South Korean Navy and collected by the country's official news agency, Yonhap.

The Navy adds that this exercise serves as “preparation for potential North Korean submarine infiltrations amid the growing threat posed by North Korea's provocative missile tests.”

It should be recalled that North Korea conducted short-range ballistic missile tests on Monday after the arrival of the US Los Angeles-class submarine at the Jeju naval base early in the day.

The Ukrainian counter-offensive “is not a scripted action thriller designed to give viewers an adrenaline rush,” Ukrainian influencer Maria Drutska warned this week, amid growing Western impatience over the relatively slow pace at which Kiev is recovering. territories.

“We must not forget that our reality is far from being a Hollywood spectacle,” Drutska wrote on Twitter, where she has more than 100,000 followers and has become a kind of unofficial mouthpiece for the Ukrainian “defense sector,” in the who works according to his bio on the social network.

His words, which recall that the Ukrainian military pay with their lives for the campaign to come to fruition, well summarize the message of the president, Volodimir Zelensky, and of the entire Kiev staff, who have made it clear that their army has not received sufficient weapons to advance with the speed that some expect.

Preparing the terrain

“Right now I don't see any signs that it makes sense to launch a large-scale mechanized offensive against the Russian positions, it's too early,” Ukrainian reserve colonel Sergey Grabski said in an interview, when asked about the published information. in the US media that point to this possibility.

According to the official discourse, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has for the moment been limited to the offensive actions of small groups of highly mobile soldiers whose main objective is to identify weak points in the Russian defenses and to detect, by the direction from which the enemy fire is coming. , Russian artillery positions.

This would explain the modest advances that Ukraine has announced to date in the surroundings of the city of Bakhmut (east) and in two areas of the southern front located in the Zaporizhia and Donetsk provinces, from where the Kiev forces are trying to advance towards the cities occupied Melitopol and Berdiansk.

“To launch a mechanized offensive, the battlefield has to be prepared in advance; Russian defenses must be weak enough that they cannot resist the offensive,” Grabski explains.

In the case of Zaporizhia, where according to US media citing Pentagon sources, Ukraine has intensified its offensive, the Ukrainian objective is to wear down and destroy Russian defenses enough so that Kiev troops can “advance towards Tokmak and then towards Berdiansk”.

Grabski does not see for now that the stage has been reached in which a substantial number of men and armored vehicles can be put into the fray, although he does not rule out that the level of troops and equipment used will soon change from a platoon (a few dozen soldiers) to a company or battalion (from a few hundred to a thousand).

destroy the infantry

In the meantime, the ex-soldier continues, the Ukrainian priority will continue to be the destruction of the largest number of Russian artillery systems.

“Every day Ukraine destroys Russian artillery systems,” explains the expert, alluding to information about it every morning in the military report of the Kiev General Staff. “If we look at the statistics, 90% of the fire impact in this war is achieved by artillery,” Grabski says.

The colonel in the reserve stresses the paramount importance of artillery for the Russian army. “Russian infantry is only strong enough under the cover of artillery fire; if they don't feel safe and under artillery protection they retreat, they lose their combat capability and become weaker and weaker,” he said.

Ukraine lacks sufficient weapons and personnel reserves to challenge the Russian army for its numerical, military and air supremacy, which, according to all the manuals, is required to start an offensive campaign.

Faced with these situations, Grabski concludes, the “only option” for Ukraine is to bet on the destruction of “weapons, ammunition and Russian positions”, a way of proceeding that requires the patience that Ukraine asks of its partners.