After a nearly yearlong slog and soaring rhetoric on both sides – from Russia's cries about NATO expansion to Ukraine's dramatic warnings that democracy itself is at stake – military analysts agree that any type of peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv will ultimately come down to control over a small stretch of war-torn territory.

As the two nations continue exchanges of gunfire on the battlefield and sound bites in the press, experts fear neither side may be currently at the point where they're willing to participate in the kind of diplomatic dialogue that could provide an exit path to the ongoing fighting that's left countless dead and a region in ruin.