What trench warfare looks like on the Ukrainian frontline

The Russian forces were so close that Boghdan, a Ukrainian soldier from the 79th Air Assault Brigade, could see them digging.

Digging is the right thing to do in this desolate stretch of scorched earth in eastern Ukraine to avoid dying. Boghdan wants the Russians to die. So he raised a rocket-propelled grenade launcher to his shoulder, looked over the mounted sandbags at the edge of his trench, and exploded. Digging has stopped. Moments later, Russian soldiers unleashed a volley of automatic gunfire. Then things died down.

"We silenced them," Boghdan said with satisfaction as he walked to a bunker deeper underground. "I just need to get my coffee."

That's life at what the Ukrainian military calls the zero line position - the edge further from the front lines - with the Russians only 300 meters away.

ImageTake cover from incoming Russian bombardment.

ImageTrudging through mud and water in the trenches around Marinka.

Through mud and mud, with patches of dirt frosts giving way to Thick, sloppy clay, there are many ways to kill and be killed. Russian helicopters regularly straf the Ukrainian trenches. The Russians bombard the Ukrainian positions with heavy artillery from miles away and send small bands of soldiers to try to infiltrate the Ukrainian trenches in the dark of night.

Powerful drones hover overhead and smaller ready-made quadcopters drop improvised explosives into the trenches.