Blazingcatfur

The corpse of a woman lay abandoned on her bedroom floor. Her name was unknown. A Ukrainian man, a feral-looking survivor with an attack dog, had guided Dave Young through the shell-churned landscape, hoping the Englishman would remove her body. He said only that the dead woman had a son but that he was dead too.

“The son died of sickness,” the man said casually, thumbing backwards down the empty stairwell as the sound of shelling reverberated through the building and small arms fire crackled from the slopes nearby. He looked through the buckled door of the woman’s apartment. “She’s been lying here two weeks.”

With the war in Ukraine grinding through its 10th month, both sides are locked in a stalemated battle of attrition, which could set the stage for a new round of escalation.

Many observers see the current deadlock as beneficial to Ukraine, allowing it to receive more state-of-the-art weapons from the West and prepare for new counteroffensives. In Russia, there is a growing sense of desperation among hard-liners about what they see as President Vladimir Putin’s hesitancy and lack of a clear strategy.

Military analysts note the fighting is likely to intensify again shortly as the soil freezes. Many point to Russian-occupied areas in the south as the most likely place for the next Ukrainian attack.