Storming a trench is treacherous work

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.