In February 2022, as Russia was moving towards Kiev, Olxandr Dmitryev realized that he knew how to stop the Moscow soldiers: to open a hole in the barrier that cut the Irpin river northeast of the capital.

As a defense consultant organizing offroad races in the area before the war, Dmitryf was well aware of the ground. He knew exactly what the release of the river basin – a huge expanse of marshes and swamps that had been dried during the Soviet era – in the Russian war machine.

“It turns into an impassable mess, as jeep drivers say,” he said. He said it to the commander responsible for Kiev’s defense and was given the approval to blow up the barrier.

Dmitryev’s idea succeeded. “First of all, he stopped the Russian attack from the north,” he said. The images of the Moscow tanks immersed in the mud made the tour of the world.

Defense and climate

Three years later, this act of despair inspires countries along the east side of NATO to consider the restoration of their own turfon (swamps) – joining two European priorities: defense and climate.

This is because the idea is not only to prepare for a possible Russian attack. The European Union’s efforts to combat global warming are partly based on nature’s help, and rich in peat trash absorbs carbon dioxide that causes global warming and trap enemy battle tanks.

However, half of the EU marshes are deprived of water to create land suitable for cultivation. Dried marsh in turn release greenhouse gases and allow heavy vehicles to cross them easily.

Some European governments are now wondering if the revival of degraded turfas can solve many problems at the same time. Finland and Poland have told Politico that they are actively investigating the restoration of turf as a multipurpose measure to protect their borders and fight climate change.

The huge fortification work of Poland’s borders, Eastern Shield, 10 billion in the € 2.3 billion), which began last year, “provides for the protection of the environment, including the creation of turf and reforestation of the border areas”.

“It is a situation that benefits all and achieves many goals at the same time,” said Tarja Haaranen, General Manager of Nature at the Finland Ministry of the Environment.

What do the swamps serve on

In their original state, the swamps are covered with sensitive mosses that cannot be completely decomposed and are slowly converted into soft, rich in carbon soil known as peat.

This makes them the most effective Earth’s CO2 reserves. Although they cover only 3% of the planet, they store one -third of the carbon of the Earth – twice as much as stored in the forests.

However, when they are drained, the marshes begin to release the carbon stored for hundreds or thousands of years, supplying global warming.

In Europe, where Eli has been considered for a long time as a non -productive land that had to be turned into agricultural, the image is particularly dramatic: half of EU turfas has been degraded, mainly due to the drainage for agricultural purposes.

As a result, EU countries reported 124 million tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution derived from drained turf in 2022, a quantity approaching the Netherlands annual emissions. Some scientists argue that even this quantity is undervalued.

Various turf restoration projects are ongoing under the new EU’s rehabilitation law, which requires countries to rejuvenate 30% of degraded turf up by 2030 and 50% by 2050.

The 27 EU governments now have a deadline by September 2026 to draw up plans for how they intend to achieve these goals.

In the east wing of NATO, the restoration of the turfas would be a relatively cheap and simple measure to achieve EU goals for nature and defense goals at the same time, scientists argue.

“It is definitely possible,” said Aveliina Helm, a professor of ecology at the University of Tartos, who until recently advised the Estonian government on the EU’s strategy to restore nature.

“We are currently in the process of developing our national rehabilitation plan, as well as many EU countries,” he added, “and in this context I see great opportunities to achieve both goals.”

The NATO’s Typus Belt

Coincidentally, most of the EU rugs are concentrated on the NATO border with Russia and Belarus, a Kremlin ally, and extend from the Arctic of Finland through the Baltic states, passing through the Suwałki Gap of Lithuania, reaching East.

When flooded, this soil is a dangerous trap for military trucks and tanks. In a tragic example earlier this year, four US troops in Lithuania died when they drove the 63 -ton M88 Hercules armored vehicle in one marsh.

And when the armies cannot cross wet open land, they are forced to enter areas that are easier to defend, as Russia found when Dmitryev and his soldiers blasted the barrier north of Kiev in February 2022.

“The Russians who were there with armored staff vehicles stuck at the entrance, then killed with a Javelin (anti -tank rocket) and when the Russians tried to build floating bridges … ours fired them,” Dmitry said.

The story of the swamp

Defense based on the lame -based is not a new idea. The wet territories have stopped troops throughout European history – from the German tribes that defeated the Roman legions by trapping them next to a 9 AD side, to the Finnish border that trapped the Soviets in the 1940s.

However, the strategic reinstatement of the drained turf on the preparation against a hostile attack would be something new. But it is an idea that begins to gain ground – between environmentalists, strategic defense and politicians.

Pauli Aalto-Setälä, a member of Finland’s ruling national coalition, submitted a parliamentary proposal last year calling on the Finnish government to restore the turfins to secure its borders and fight climate change.

“In Finland, we have historically used nature in terms of defense,” said Aalto-setälä, who has the rank of Major and trained as an armor officer during his military service. “I realized that, especially at the eastern border, there are many excellent areas that can be restored for both the climate and to make it as difficult to cross.”

The Finnish Ministries of Defense and the Environment will begin in autumn discussions about the possibility of launching a pilot curriculum, according to Haaranen, who will lead the working group. “Personally, I’m very excited about it,” he said.