A Ukrainian Army soldier jumps over a gap in a defensive trench outside Kostyanynivka, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, on May 24, 2023. These fortifications are part of a larger network of defenses west of Bakhmut. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)
ARMIES have been storming trench lines for more than 100 years, but for all the advances in military technology, it is no less harrowing now than it was when soldiers were crossing the muddy battlefields of World War I.
Assaults can be stealthy and surgical, employing surprise, or launched with overwhelming force, using drone strikes, or tanks and artillery. The goal is to breach a maze of protected firing positions and bunkers linked by sunken walkways and guarded by the enemy.
Ukrainian soldiers chose the louder option for an assault on a trench line in May. Some who participated described a fast, well-choreographed operation of a type that is likely to play a pivotal role in Ukraine’s long-anticipated counteroffensive, which US officials suggest has begun, and which will entail breaking through belts of Russian land mines, tank barriers and trenches.
A Ukrainian soldier with the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade retreats after firing a rocketpropelled grenade (RPG) at Russian forces near Bakhmut on March 20, 2023. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)
During the May assault, Ukrainian mortar units bombarded the position. A tank rumbled out and opened fire. Then armoured Humvees bounced forward over a field, firing machine-guns, the men said.
The assault group fired 3,000 bullets from two American-provided Browning machine-guns, one commander named Kozak said, in an indication of the ammunition requirements for troops on the offensive.
By the time a squad of Ukrainian soldiers arrived at the rim of the Russian trench, soldiers who took part said in interviews, the defenders appeared deafened by the artillery explosions and too disoriented to fight back.
“It really helped that our tank was working on them,” said one member of the assault team, Sgt Oleksandr.
An exploding drone also helped. Flown in by the Ukrainians ahead of the troops, it scared the Russians into their bunkers, leaving the approaches to the trench unguarded.
“They were all hiding,” Oleksandr said.
For months, Ukraine has been training specialised units for such assaults, with allies like the United States and Britain instructing Ukrainian soldiers on how to coordinate artillery, armoured vehicles and infantry.
A soldier from UkraineÕs 110th Territorial Defense Brigade sets up his heavy machine gun position in an underground trench facing nearby Russian positions, in southern UkraineÕs Zaporizhzhia region on April 18, 2023.(David Guttenfelder/The New York Times)
Ukraine’s army made available for interviews members of the squad that stormed the Russian trench on May 20 in eastern Ukraine, part of a reconnaissance unit of the 59th Brigade.
Capturing a trench fortification might seem a small-scale operation, especially when compared with one that involves a wave of tanks, air assaults or the thundering violence of HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System).
But taking a trench is difficult soldiering. It depends on careful planning around the landscape and the weather and the actions of individual soldiers, said Kozak.
He and his soldiers asked to be identified by their nicknames or first names only, for security reasons and in keeping with Ukrainian military rules.
The goal is to get as close as possible before the enemy has an opportunity to fire on the soldiers, who are open and vulnerable as they manoeuvre.
These attacks are sometimes stealthy. One video of an Ukrainian assault, filmed from a drone and used for training, shows two Ukrainians sneaking up on a trench in the early morning, as Russians apparently sleep, jumping in and walking to the entry of the bunker.
Alternatively, the goal is to force all those in the trench to keep their heads down with a cacophony of firepower.
The trench at the centre of the battle in May, which was near the town of Pisky, had been overrun by a Russian platoon, but the Ukrainians wanted it back, in part to rescue a wounded soldier.
The Ukrainians first tried creeping up, setting out about 1am on May 20.
But the Russians spotted them and opened fire, wounding four of the eight soldiers in the assault group.
They retreated, dragging their wounded with them.
Members of UkraineÕs 93rd Mechanized Brigade fire an 82mm mortar at Russian positions outside of Bakhmut, Ukraine, on May 19, 2023. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)
Kozak, interviewed at a base well back from the front line where he and the assault group were resting, described that setback – then pivoted to trumpet the noisy assault of the following morning, when the Ukrainians deployed their full arsenal and reclaimed the trench.
“By the time the Brownings stopped, the infantry was at the entry to the bunkers,” Kozak said.
He said: “You don’t allow the enemy to get oriented, to put his head up, to work with grenades. By the time he understands, our guys are in his trenches.”
At the entry to one bunker, Oleksandr shouted to the Russians: “Come out and you will live!”
The Russians started filing out, with their hands up, he said.
The squad captured 22 Russians from the newly-created Storm units.
The account could not be independently verified, but multiple Ukrainian soldiers described the details of the assault similarly, and videos provided by the military of interrogations of the prisoners corresponded to their accounts.
The Ukrainian military described the trench assault as a success because it led to the capture of a large number of prisoners.
One Ukrainian soldier, who used the nickname Rizhy, or Ginger, said the prisoners were given cigarettes, water and medical kits to treat their wounds.
For all the tactical planning necessary to capture a trench, something else is needed as well, the soldiers said.
“We have a word in Ukrainian: fury,” Rizhy said. “We don’t need to be angry or evil. We need to be furious.” — ©2023 The New York Times Company
