In a modern fight across the Ukrainian steppe, where it is nearly impossible to hide from the digital eyes of day and night drone surveillance, windbreaks have become one of the most valuable terrain features that Russian and Ukrainian troops fight over. They provide a refuge for soldiers to gather for assaults, take cover from enemy fire or, in the quiet moments, listen to the wind blow through the branches.
Control over strategic windbreaks can make a difference in winning a fight or losing one, soldiers said. 'The tree line is life,' said a member of the gun team in the National Guard's 15th Brigade.
Everything that made this firing position happen - concealment from drones, the time and space needed to build a fortified bunker and a road to access it all - is rooted in Soviet-era agricultural planning. Rows of trees, known as windbreaks, were planted decades ago throughout eastern and southern Ukraine to fortify adjacent crop fields and help reduce soil erosion from the bitter wind.
Though originally conceived of in the 19th century to stop soil degradation, it was under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that the lines of trees were planted all over the steppes.
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