Life In The Cross Fire: As Russians Draw Near, Bakhmut Struggles On

Russia continues its punishing offensive to seize the key city of Bakhmut, only to be repeatedly repulsed by a determined Ukrainian counterattack.

"They shoot all day and night, and I cannot sleep," said Serhiy as he gestured from his Soviet-era car.

The seemingly random Russian strikes, delivered by warplanes, artillery, and missiles, have killed, maimed, and terrified Bakhmut's residents and Ukrainian soldiers for months.

"The situation is chaos and civilians are suffering. Social structures are destroyed," said Serhiy Vlasov as he walked through a shattered market on August 14.

As they encounter nearly nonstop Russian artillery and missile strikes, Ukrainian defenses have put up stiff resistance.
 

Facing near relentless bombardment, failing infrastructure, and an unclear future, an elderly woman has agreed to be evacuated as heartbroken neighbors bid her farewell.

"I was born in this city. But I need to confess: Every time I come here, it becomes more and more alien to me," said Skoryk (left) who works for an NGO assisting vulnerable people.

During Soviet times and up until 2016, Bakhmut was known as Artemovsk. Its history dates back to 1571, when the Bakhmut guards (or Bakhmut Cossacks) patrolled its southern perimeter for Tatar incursions. When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the city had an estimated 70,000 residents.
 

As Russian forces moved closer to Bakhmut, many inhabitants fled, leaving behind a shattered city. However, some residents, such as Viktoria Bulavintseva, have stayed on.

Natalya Ataiantz, 42, and her husband, Oleksandr Ataiantz, 52, have also chosen to remain, saying, "It is our land. We will not go anywhere from here."
 

The family has a small farm where their frail grandmother, Maria Tkachenko, 96, also lives.

Ataiantz holds the hands of her grandmother. "She knows nothing about the war. I tell her that the military is training," she said.

Ataiantz shows a picture of her grandparents as Maria sleeps.

In a televised broadcast on July 30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the hundreds of thousands of people still living in the combat zones in the eastern Donetsk region need to leave. 

Though Russian forces maintain a numerical advantage in heavy weaponry, the Ukrainian military claimed on August 15 to have successfully repulsed Russian assaults on the Bakhmut, Slovyansk, Avdiyivka, and Novopavlivske fronts.  

 

With the death toll rising on both sides of the bloody conflict, some wounded and, in some cases, amputee soldiers are returning to the front.