Russia building fence, trenches on Ukrainian border

The Russian government has built a 40-km fence and has dug about 100 km in trenches along the border with Ukraine in the Rostov oblast, reported on May 25 the rg.ru news site, citing anonymous sources in the regional offices of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia. The fortifications are “to ensure the stability of the Don region, as well as stop the illegal transfer of arms,” the report said.

Since the year’s start, Russian border guards have intercepted more than 60 illegal attempts to transfer arms and ammunition, resulting the confiscation of more than 40 firearms, 6,000 units of ammunition, more than 200 grenades, 100 missiles and more than 30 mines. More than 430 violators of the border regime have been arrested, the report said. Border guards had to use firearms five times to stop illegal activity on the border, posing a threat to FSB workers and local residents.

Zenon Zawada: There are several ironies to the Donbas war: it was the Ukrainians who talked about building a wall on the Russian border, yet it’s the Russians who have begun to do it. It was the Ukrainians who suffered from the arms flow into Ukraine, yet now the Russians are suffering the consequences. Before the war, Russians traveled freely throughout Ukraine, especially to Crimea, but now that has become extremely difficult.

The chickens have come home to roost. Russia now has to deal with the military consequences seeping through its own borders from the war it started in Ukraine. There are plenty of illegal armed formations in southern Russia that have benefitted from the free illegal flow of arms across the border, posing a threat to Russia’s stability. If Putin doesn’t use the current opportunity to remove more sanctions, the consequences will only deepen, a fact that Putin could be finally acknowledging.