The fierce fighting around the strategically important town of Bachmut has been going on for several months and has now turned into a bloody trench war where artillery shelling is ongoing, reports Britain's The Guardian.
The paper likens the front line to World War I battles with rain, mud and extreme death tolls.
Both sides claim to have made progress, but according to the American think tank ISW, neither the Ukrainians nor the Russians have made any significant progress recently.
Some experts have pointed out that winter may mean a pause in the fighting, but in Bachmut there has been no pause, despite the colder and wetter weather.
Many dead
According to lieutenant colonel Joakim Paasikivi, fierce battles are constantly taking place with a high number of human casualties.
- The Russians throw in large numbers of soldiers who are rather poorly equipped and untrained.
The Ukrainian positions are under severe pressure.
Both Ukraine and Russia have sent large reinforcements to the front outside Bachmut recently.
The Russian troops are said to largely consist of soldiers from the paramilitary Wagner group, who, among other things, have been recruited from Russian prisons.
- The advantage for the Russians is that it doesn't matter if they die, it just becomes cheaper for society.
The disadvantage is that they are probably not very good soldiers, says Paasikivi.
Catastrophic conditions
The city, located in eastern Donetsk, was captured by pro-Russian separatists in 2014, but was later retaken by Ukraine.
Before the war, Bachmut had around 70,000 inhabitants.
Now only a few thousand civilians are estimated to be left in the city, which is said to lack both electricity and water.
Ukrainian authorities stated on Monday that at least four civilians died during the latest attacks from the Russian side.
- People are hiding in basements, which in many cases are flooded.
They are forced to live in catastrophic conditions, says Donetsk's Ukrainian governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, according to The Guardian.