KIEV, June 11 /TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during his visit to Mariupol on Thursday that fortifications to be built on the disengagement line in Donbas should be ready by mid-July.
"All fortifications should be erected by mid-July," the Ukrainian newspaper Obozrevatel quoted Poroshenko as saying during the inspection of a fortified strongpoint in Mariupol.
According to the president, the construction of fortifications and military defenses will cost 1 billion hryvnias ($47.2 million).
"The total cost of construction of all military defenses amounts to 1 billion hryvnias /47.2 million US dollars/," Poroshenko’s press service quoted him as saying.
Poroshenko told a news conference on June 5 that he was dissatisfied with the state of fortifications in the Kiev-government-controlled part of the Donetsk region, which is the area of responsibility of Alexander Kikhtenko (the head of the state administration of the Donetsk region). "He will be held accountable for it," the Ukrainian head of state said.
On March 9 this year, Poroshenko said that Ukraine was building a deep layered defense system in the country’s East. The press center of the security operation’s headquarters clarified that Ukraine was planning to create two defensive lines with a purpose to avert the enemy’s penetration into the Ukrainian territory.
"The bulk of the works consists in the construction of about 1,500 kilometers of trenches and connecting trenches; more than 8,000 dug-in emplacements for military hardware and more than 4,000 trench shelters; and the creation of a 60-kilometer of non-explosive entanglements," the headquarters said.
Early in May, Ukraine’s National Security Council adopted a package of measures to intensify the construction of fortifications in Ukraine’s Donbas region with an aim to strengthen defense capabilities and the ability to defend state security, and develop a system of medical support for servicemen.