Inside the 'meat grinder': Russian and Ukrainian losses mount in Bakhmut

Warning: This story contains a graphic photo

Both sides call it a "meat grinder," with scores of dead soldiers, a wrecked cityscape and only people with nowhere to run still living there. Why are so many Russians and Ukrainians dying for Bakhmut? 

For almost six months, the Eastern Ukrainian city has been the site of intense, grinding trench warfare that reminds authorities and analysts of the First World War.

"Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday of the scene around Bakhmut and nearby Soledar, both in Donetsk province. "The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes.

"This is what madness looks like."

Bakhmut has some strategic value, but military analysts say it is out of balance with the battle's attrition and devastation. Instead, Ukraine, Russia and the mercenary Wagner Group are fighting for the political victories and symbolic worth Bakhmut might bring.

Battlefield footage suggests intense fighting for relatively modest stretches of ground, with the front line edging back and forth.

The fighting is "the most intense on the entire front line," said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.

"So many remain on the battlefield ... either dead or wounded," he said on YouTube. "They attack our positions in waves, but the wounded as a rule die where they lie, either from exposure as it is very cold or from blood loss."

Ukrainian troops fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar say attacks come in waves of small groups, each with no more than 15 soldiers.

The first wave is usually wiped out, said Taras Berezovets, a Ukrainian journalist, political commentator and officer in the Ukrainian army. He said pro-Russian forces would retreat after defeat and leave white ribbons for the next wave to follow. 

But while Ukrainian authorities focus on Russian losses, Ukrainian deaths and injuries pile up as well. 

Wounded soldiers arrive around the clock for emergency treatment at a Ukrainian field hospital located near the front line around Bakhmut.

Medics there fought for 30 minutes on Monday to save one soldier, but his injuries were too severe.