Bombardment rains down on apartment complexes.

Where flames, explosions, and black smoke swept away, a year ago, there was nothing left of the school, apartments and trees.

It is in Bakhmut, Ukraine, where the battle of hell ensued.

Soldiers of the Russian mercenary company Wagner Group wave flags and Russian flags.

One soldier even dances.

[Yevgeny Prigozhin / Head of the Wagner Group (May 20): It's noon on May 20, 2023. We have completely occupied Bakhmut to the last place.]

Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine With a population of 70,000, this small city has been the biggest battleground of the war.

Russia, which started the war by saying it would "capture Ukraine in just three days," has changed its goal to withdraw from the capital Kyiv and occupy the eastern part of the country in the face of a fierce Ukrainian counteroffensive.

But by losing Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson in the south, they saved face and ended up in Bakhmut.

As Bakhmut is on the corridor to the interior of Ukraine, the Wagner Group has also led the battle here.

[Prigozhin / Head of the Wagner Group (16 February): Probably in a few weeks (March) the Wagner Group will besiege Bakhmut, but it's too hard to predict. It's up to the Ukrainian military.]

But this battle, 10 months, is not over.

Repeated captures and recaptures have made it more a matter of pride than strategic value.

Ukraine, which must somehow win this battle in order to continue to receive support from Western countries.

[Zelensky, President of Ukraine (March 22): Russia will lose this war. There is no one in the world who still does not feel this.]

Even if it retreats, Russia will continue to send in troops to focus on exhausting Ukrainian forces.

Drone strikes and a presumed white phosphorus bomb, a chemical weapon that burns people when they come into contact with the body, devastated Bakhmut.

This scene of a Russian soldier, who has lost all his comrades and is left alone, draws an X with his arm to the Ukrainian drone, saying, "Don't kill me."

At the same time as the brutality of the battlefield, it showed how pointless this war of attrition is.

The official toll has not been released, but the Wagner Group claims that 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the fighting alone, while the Russians claimed 20,000 people, including mercenaries and prisoners.

On Dec. 20, Russia made a big splash in its own media with Putin's congratulations.

Bakhmut has even been compared to a second Berlin.

Ukrainian President Zelensky, who attended the G7, said:

[Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine (May 21): There's nothing left. Russia has destroyed everything. It's a tragedy. For now, Bakhmut is in our hearts. There's nothing left on this earth.]

However, they immediately reversed themselves and are preparing a counterattack from the outskirts.

For the time being, it looks like the skirmishes will continue further.

The tragedy in Bakhmut is not over yet.

(Video Editing: Jang Hyun-ki / CG: Lee Jun-ho / Production: Digital News Editor)