the southern part, the voton line, ran from the sea of azov along the river.ong the banks of the dnieper. the nazis sought to unite them into a common defensive line, from the baltic to azov. one of the centers of that defense was melitopol in the zaporozhye region. the fascists began preparing a line 150 km long and up to 40 deep in the spring of 1943. on the outskirts of the city, they turned literally every village into a fortress. and before this, sapper and engineering units were transferred from berlin, the troops of the southern front, which then became the fourth ukrainian, were advancing in the steppe, sometimes without serious numerical superiority. our fighters were opposed by more than 200,000 enemy soldiers, numerous anti-tank and anti-personnel barriers, pillboxes and bunkers. the battles were fierce and bloody. what was the cost of breaking through the eastern rampart? on the line, here it is, why is it so important today to preserve the memory of these events? in the story by olga mokhova. in 1972 , a diorama was opened in the melitopol museum