Battle For Bakhmut: Ukrainian City Endures Freezing Temperatures As Shelling And Fighting Rages

An apartment building in Bakhmut burns after Russian shelling on December 7. 

Russian forces continued their relentless rocket attacks and bombardments on Ukrainian positions in Donetsk, with particular focus on Bakhmut -- a city that has been under attack for nearly seven months.

Local residents watch as their apartment burns following shelling on December 7. 

Before Russia's invasion, the city had a population of 70,000 and was known mostly for its large salt mine and vineyards.

Since the spring, Bakhmut has become a vital part of Ukraine's frontline defense, often to the detriment of its civilians.

Funeral directors place an unidentified body in a coffin on December 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered the evacuation of residents in the eastern Donetsk region on July 30. Yet many residents refused to leave.

A Ukrainian soldier escorts a local resident on December 7.

Not only the shelling, but the winter months without electricity and water pose serious challenges to Bakhmut's residents.

Bakhmut residents stand near a wheelbarrow used to collect firewood near their destroyed apartment.

On December 6, the UN's humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, decried the "colossal" torment that Ukraine is suffering from Russia's destruction of its infrastructure.

Ukrainian soldiers ride atop a tank on December 5.

Russian forces have been pounding the city as Ukrainian forces try to solidify their gains farther to the north as fighting switched from the south to the eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian service members move weapons and ammunition through the empty streets of Bakhmut on December 7.

Western allies have provided the Ukrainian military with cold-weather gear in addition to weapons and ammunition to help them survive the winter.
 

A Ukrainian soldier prepares a mortar shell to fire at Russian positions near Bakhmut on December 6.

A French MO-120 RT-61 mortar is fired against Russian positions near Bakhmut.

Soldiers with the Ukrainian Army's 10th Mountain Assault Brigade eat lunch during a lull in shelling next to their bunker at the front in the Bakhmut region on December 7.


 

New graves are seen at a cemetery near Bakhmut. Neither Ukraine nor Russia has said how many have been killed during the fighting for Bakhmut.