Birds' nests of fiber-optic cables show war's impact on Ukraine

Birds' nests of fiber-optic cables show war's impact on Ukraine Yana Hrynko, senior researcher of The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, shows a bird's nest made with fragments of optic fiber, which was found by a Ukrainian service member on the front line and then passed to the museum in Kyiv on June 23. Kyiv - Woven from fiber-optic cable and grass, a small bird's nest found near the front line of the war in Ukraine shows how the more than 4-year-old conflict is reshaping the natural environment, researchers say. Areas along the 1,200-kilometer front line are covered with ultrathin fiber-optic cables, which are used by Ukrainian and Russian troops to guide aerial attack drones to make them impervious to electronic jamming. The cables, which can stretch for 20 km, lie tangled in trees and scattered across fields and on the rooftops of towns in Ukraine's frontline regions, glistening in the sunlight like giant spider webs. Birds have begun repurposing the discarded cables to weave their nests, says Yana Hrynko, a senior researcher at Kyiv's War Museum, cautiously examining two delicate nests the armed forces sent to the museum from the front line. "Objects such as bird nests with fragments of optic fiber demonstrate the change in the nature of war," said Hrynko.