Russian Dug-In Defenses Resemble Horrors of World War I “Trench Warfare”

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

Machine guns, tanks, airplanes, artillery and barbed wire were all used for the first time during the horribly traumatic, high-casualty trench warfare of World War I. Not surprising that Germany’s initial invasion on the Western Front initially resulted in a statement, as soldiers were tasked with charging enemy trenches over “no-mans-land” where they were exposed, vulnerable and faced with near certain death. British, French and German soldiers literally ran across open areas straight at heavily defended trenches, placing themselves in the direct line of machine gun fire.

The horrors of trench warfare are well documented and serve as a historical reminder of the trauma of ground war, yet despite more than a century of military innovation and technological progress regarding combat weapons, today’s war in Ukraine bears a surprising resemblance to the slow, high-casualty, high-risk combat experienced by French and German armies trying to advance on the Western front.

A century later, there are some clear parallels to the war in Ukraine as soldiers slowly and carefully seek to advance through minefields and heavily defended Russian areas. Being aware that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was coming toward them, Russian forces had time to prepare for and anticipate new waves of Ukrainian attacks.

The comparison to World War I, while of course intended in a “loose” or “broadly defined” way, was made recently at the Pentagon by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

“The Russians have had several months to put in a very complex defense in depth, the linear defense in depth. It’s not quite connected trench lines like World War I, but it’s not dissimilar from that, either – with lots of complex minefields, dragons’ teeth, barbed wire, trenches, et cetera. They’ve got a very extensive security zone in depth, and then they’ve got at least two, perhaps even three main defensive belts,” Milley explained, according to a Pentagon transcript of his remarks at the Pentagon.

There is a clear, key reason why this somewhat anachronistic ground-war circumstance has emerged, and that is simply the absence of air superiority. While Ukrainian pilots are being trained on F-16s by Denmark and The Netherlands, Milley stressed that the effectiveness and risks presented by both Russian and Ukrainian air defenses have created a combat circumstance wherein precision-attacks and territorial advances fall largely within the realm of land warfare.