The peak of trench warfare was Verdun during the first world war that had the British military develop armoured chain vehicles today known as tanks to over come them.
In Ukraine the trenches shown on TV are anything near the level of sophistication of those in the early last century. Trenches are known for way longer than most would expect and supported existing walls of castles and fortifications against close range artillery fire and advancing rifle or swords man creating additional barriers that were often flooded and in peace times used for farming purposes.
Today in Ukraine the trenches look like this:
They are quickly digged out using tree lines as cover and are used by light infantry using them as cover to attack or hold positions that are easy targets for artillery fire and most likely wont survive a major rain season with heavy rains, but do well in summer months to give shelter and rest to the soldiers by providing a feeling of security as a hideout.
That in opposite is a proper defence trench line that must be build using solid strong materials from concrete to thick wood or wood plates. It does not know long straight lines to keep lines of fire short. Most of the trenches are deep enough that even a tall soldier can find cover when standing or running and the soil digged out is piled up towards the enemy. It has fixed lifted positions for MG and Anti Tank weapons along the trench line and forward positions to give covering fire in between the trenches.
The commando bunkers are connected by telephone wire and are in a backward position, are proper bunkers against artillery fire and have the escape routes out of the all covering barb wire system that gives enough space in between wire and soil to have a soldier stay below moving around trees and in excavated spots created by piling up little hill lines created form the soil digged out when creating the trench line.
This form of trenches is used to connect artillery positions and is also covered by longer range artillery further away to hit just before countering attacks reach the barbwire system.
In case the enemy enters the tranches the straight lines have solid doors that can be locked creating cells like in a ship or submarine that in the same way keep the trench line from sinking into enemies hands. The defenders will use the barbwire system heads down using cover crawling to counter attack or have the part the attacker took over hit by their own backward artillery to retake and later rebuild the positions.
In case of being overrun the soldiers use the second line accessible by the commando, storage and rest bunkers to get out of the trenches and onto an escape street possibly by using armoured personal carriers or helicopter pick up landing spots.
The trench system was the birthplace of the infamous MG nest and most soldiers in the battles of first world war did not die by artillery fire being in up to four meter deep trenches, but when they were forced to run against the enemies MGs. Those orders were a war crime.
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