As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the one-year mark, all eyes are trained on one small, war-ravaged city: Bakhmut. There, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, is where one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the war is currently playing out as Russia tries to achieve its first major battlefield victory since its capture of the eastern cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk over the summer. Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the situation on the frontline as “very difficult” in his Sunday evening address to Ukrainian citizens, Russian forces have yet to encircle the city. This months-long battle for Bakhmut has come at the cost of hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian casualties per day, according to some estimates, as well as the city of Bakhmut itself.