“To be neutral now is criminal passivity”

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Last August, in the Donbass town of Bakhmut, Blick spoke to a man who was repairing his home’s rusty gutter. “Better wait, the war here is not over yet”, the translator who traveled with us advised him at the time.

Six months later, it turns out that the gutter repairman was definitely too optimistic. Not much is left of his birthplace after months of fighting between Russian attackers and Ukrainian defenders. Only a few hundred of the once 70,000 inhabitants remain. Most houses are destroyed or badly damaged. According to military estimates, up to 1,000 soldiers are killed on both sides every day. A Ukrainian citizen who had just arrived in Bakhmut told Blick: “The situation in the city is hell, pure hell.”

Ukrainians blow up first bridges

Ukrainian troops blew up a bridge on Friday morning over the Bakhmutovka River, which flows through the middle of the city. A clear sign that a Russian breakthrough is feared. Shortly before, videos of fighters from the Russian mercenary group Wagner appeared in the center of Bakhmut.

Already on Thursday evening confirmed the commander of a Ukrainian drone combat unitwho has been reporting directly from Bachmut under the name “Magyar” for almost four months that he has received orders to withdraw from the military leadership.

Even if the Ukrainian leadership had announced in the middle of the week that they wanted to increase the troop presence in Bakhmut, the signs point to a retreat. According to experts from the American think tank Institute for the Study of War, the Russians should refrain from completely encircling Bakhmut. They are advancing on three sides. At least one of the roads leading west from Bachmut is still open.

Ukraine experienced a similar situation as early as June 2022, when the Russians entered the Donbass cities of Sieverodonetsk and Lysychansk, but left escape routes open, thinking that this would speed up the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops.

If Bakhmut falls, the Russians will take a big step closer to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two largest cities in the Donbass still under Ukrainian control. The gruesome fighting in the east of the war country would continue to escalate.

“Given the crimes in Bakhmut, neutrality is criminal”

In the deadly chaos of Bakhmut sits Andrei Luilko (42), a carpenter in the Donbass city of Sloviansk until February 2022, who has been a fighter at the front ever since. Luilko is currently in a war hospital west of town with severe pneumonia. He reports to Blick with a letter.

“To be neutral now is to do nothing criminally,” warns soldier Luilko, looking at Switzerland. “If a neighbor snaps, kills him and then rapes his wife and children, isn’t it weird to just stand next to the door and say I’m neutral?” asks the Ukrainian.

The world needs to wake up and take a clear stand, he says – especially now in view of the serious crimes in Bachmut. “Putin won’t just stop.” Any country could become the new target of its “terror state”. ‘You could be next! Bachmut is just the beginning!”

Source: Blick