Bakhmut, with the enemy at the door

Cars struggle to make their way through the connecting side road Kostiantynivka with Bakhmut. They are 27 kilometers straight into the heart of the battle that began this summer and in which the enemy advances meter by meter in the heart of Donbass. The fog is a wall, it looks like snow that you have to dig up to move on. This country road is now a highway used by the army and volunteers to access the epicenter of the battle.

As you go east, you see fewer cars and more destruction. When there are no more vehicles, the road becomes eternal and every kilometer lasts forever. The mist darkens as it collides with the black earth chernozems, that fertile soil ideal for growing grain that revolts against the neglect of the past year, conquers the little bit of asphalt that is left and turns it into a swamp.

After 20 kilometers you have to stop at Chasiv Jar, a municipality belonging to the Bakhmut District and currently marking the border of the area under Ukrainian control. They are just talking from here some weapon that never ceases to roar. The Ukrainians hit the enemy hard from this point and every artillery hit shakes the ground. It doesn’t stop. It doesn’t stop.

Journalists are not welcome. A wild-eyed neighbor prepares pork skewers on a makeshift grill in the doorway of a half-ruined building. He advances towards the newcomers with a kitchen knife in hand and can hardly keep his balance because of the ice. “Some photographers came a few days ago, and then the Russians attacked us and I lost my two cars. Get out of here, you bastards!” There is fear of speaking out, fear of current fighting and possible future Russian retaliation if Ukrainian troops lose more ground.

He the change of owner can happen at any time. Here, war reports from the MOD are not followed because they have first-hand information. They are the protagonists of this fight for Dombás. Another day, the General Staff indicated that Russia “continues attacks on positions of Ukrainian troops” around Bakhmut, but denied that Russian mercenary group Wagner he would be captured Yahidne, northwest of the city.

As stated by the spokesman of the group of forces in eastern Ukraine, Serhiy Cherevaty, “fighting is taking place in seven points in the neighborhood of Bakhmut.” Points like Chasiv Yar.

the place of meeting

Terror can s several neighbors who remained in this part of Chasiv Yar and you have to walk through the deserted streets of this town, which had a population of 20,000 before the war, to find some warmth. He Point of Invincibility (meeting place) has become a place where those who decided to ignore the authorities’ call to evacuate come to. Here I can connect to the Internet and, when there is gas for the generator, charge my cell phone and cook thanks to the wood-burning stove with a plate on top.

Lubov cooks potatoes, soup and tea on the stove leading the way Point of Invincibility. This old library was converted into a the refuge of life, a building where neighbors see each other face to face, greet each other and celebrate being alive for another day. I dream of cooking borscht (beet soup) i goulash (meat stew) or make desserts, but now we can only cook potatoes, there is nothing else,” says Lubov as Ludmila shines a flashlight on the pot with potatoes. The two friends will then share a menu at one of the long tables in the middle, but wait for the gas for the generator to arrive so they can eat under the light of a bulb. Then they will return to their houses to live at night.

“My great-grandson’s name is Arthur and he is 8 years old. It had been a long time since he had walked with his parents. I was born here, my husband was born here and we will not leave. Better to die in your own country than to starve as a refugee in an unknown place», believes Ludmila. The icy landscape of the street melts due to the warm effect of the firewood. Only explosions seep through the boarded-up windows. «We don’t care too much at this point whether they were firing from our artillery or from Russian artillerywe live with fear rooted in our bodies and it’s impossible to get used to it,” admits Vladimir, a former worker of a local refractory material factory, a factory that “was the biggest in the USSR”, he recalls with pride.

mouse in this Point of Invincibility it is a parenthesis in a life marked by death. Outside, war is knocking on the door of this district of Bakhmut. The artillery does not stop. It doesn’t stop.