Why Ukraine's bloodiest battle looked like a scene from World War I

• The battle for Bakhmut, Ukraine, has been compared to World War I.
• The comparison is because both had horrific death tolls, and heavy use of trenches.

Ukraine's most horrific battle — for the city of Bakhmut — looks like something from another era; specifically that of World War I.

Dirt, severed limbs, soldiers huddled in trenches under constant artillery fire — a far cry from most modern conflicts.

Ironically, it is the modern technology that explains why the fighting was like this, a US Army veteran fighting in Ukraine said.

Business Insider agreed to refer to him by his call sign, Jackie. He is one of about 45 people who spoke to BI for a sweeping feature on that horrific battle.

Fighting in Bakhmut included gruesome urban combat in streets and buildings, as well as close-quarter fighting in trenches, fields, and forests. It was described by some as a "meat grinder."

In World War I, areas of little strategic importance nonetheless became killing fields simply because two armies met there and would not give way. And so it was in Bakhmut.

An ambulance driver in Ukraine, speaking to France24, said Bakhmut was a parallel to the 1916 Battle of Verdun, the longest of WWI.

Jackie told BI how strange it was to fight in a battle that resembled those in a war that ended 107 years ago — and said it was partly down to drones.

"The reason it looks like World War I — this is a hard admission for a reconnaissance soldier —but [it's] drones," he said.

Both sides could see exactly what the other was doing — forcing them into defensive tactics that also typified WWI.

"The destruction that we're seeing and the trench warfare and things like that," Jackie added, is "partly created by the fact that this is so dominated by drones."

Jackie said staying alive in Bakhmut meant sprinting between buildings and trying not to get spotted.

The drones meant that "there's no place that's safe in the entire city," he said. Spending any time in the open would invite a swift death from artillery, tank fire, or snipers.

It left Bakhmut looking like a "ghost town," despite being full of soldiers, because everyone was hiding out in buildings, basements, or whatever shelter they could find.

James Patton Rogers, a drone warfare expert at Cornell University, told Business Insider that drones can have a huge impact on how a battle is shaped.

Drones force people into protections like trenches, and make them take extra precautions with how their trenches are set up, he said.

"The character of the battle certainly changes when you have this ubiquitous ever-present threats in the skies above the battlefield," he added.

And drones also help drive up the death toll and mean that soldiers "are constantly on edge. You never know if the drones above you are ones that have seen you," he said.

Advanced equipment like tanks, artillery, and armored vehicles are also vulnerable to drones, Patton Rogers said.

"It effectively degrades your military effectiveness in many ways. It means it's harder for you to be mobile and to move in warfare."

While Ukrainian soldiers were forced out of Bakhmut in May, fighting around the city is still ongoing, with Ukraine's forces pushing forward in the fields and forest on its outskirts.

Fighting amid drones and trenches continues there, just as it likely will if Ukraine's forces get back into the city itself.