Across hundreds of miles of the front, Ukrainian forces are waging dozens of pitched battles for patches of land no bigger than a few city blocks. The scope of Russian attacks continues to grow, despite staggering losses, and Russia is throwing greater numbers of soldiers into the assaults than it did in some earlier stages of the fighting, according to soldiers and military analysts.

The Russian troops have also been using electric scooters, motorcycles and ATVs, which allow them to disperse quickly across the front, a Ukrainian official told The Times. The stepped-up attacks have heightened longstanding concerns over how Ukraine manages its military and have countered assumptions that Moscow’s offensive would slow.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin used his New Year’s Eve address to say the country was overcoming every challenge and moving forward. But he did not say where Russia was going, even as it suffers huge casualties in its war in Ukraine, struggles with rising inflation and absorbs diplomatic blows abroad.

For more: Outnumbered and desperate, Ukraine has begun using explosives to turn cheap consumer drones into suicide drones.