Despite Taking Casualties, Ukraine's Bloodied Troops Fight On Near Bakhmut

A Ukrainian soldier administers first aid to a wounded 19-year-old comrade on September 4. The unit was battling Russian forces near the eastern city of Bakhmut.

The situation along the eastern front line remains difficult for Ukraine's troops as they defend and prevent the loss of strongholds, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, said on September 6.

Amid the devastated landscape, a Ukrainian soldier makes his way toward a position.

"The enemy does not abandon his plans to reach the borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," General Syrskiy wrote on Telegram.

A Ukrainian soldier jumps into a trench to escape Russian shelling.

"Our main task is to ensure reliable defense, to prevent the loss of our strongholds and positions in the Kupyansk and Lyman directions, as well as to successfully move forward and reach the designated lines in the Bakhmut direction," Syrskiy said.

As the shelling continues, a Ukrainian soldier hunkers down in a trench.

 

Another soldier looks out of his trench position. 

An injured Ukrainian soldier smokes a cigarette.

Wounded soldiers wait for a medical evacuation.

Ukrainian soldiers walk to their positions.

Kyiv's forces in the southeastern Zaporizhzhya region have breached formidable Russian defensive obstacles, according to a U.S.-based research group.

Bomb craters litter the fields between Ukrainian and Russian positions near Bakhmut.

In what has been hailed as "notable progress," troops surmounted Russian fortifications last week to retake the village of Robotyne.