Inside the 'meat grinder': Russian and Ukrainian losses mount in Bakhmut

Warning: This story contains a graphic photo

Both sides call it a "meat grinder," with scores of dead soldiers, a wrecked cityscape and only people with nowhere to run still living there. Why are so many Russians and Ukrainians dying for Bakhmut?

For almost six months, the Eastern Ukrainian cityhas been the site of intense, grinding trench warfare that reminds authorities and analysts of the First World War.

"Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no lifeleft," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday ofthe scene around Bakhmutand nearbySoledar, both inDonetsk province. "The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of theoccupiers and scars from the strikes.

"This iswhat madness looks like."

Bakhmut has some strategic value, butmilitary analystssay it is out of balance with the battle's attrition and devastation. Instead, Ukraine, Russia and the mercenary Wagner Groupare fighting for the political victories and symbolic worthBakhmutmight bring.

Battlefield footage suggests intense fighting for relatively modest stretches of ground, with the front line edging back and forth.

The fighting is "the most intense on the entire front line," saidUkrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.

"So many remain on the battlefield ... either dead orwounded," he said on YouTube. "They attack our positions in waves, but the wounded as a rule die where they lie, either fromexposure as it is very cold or from blood loss."

Ukrainian troops fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar sayattacks come in waves of small groups, each with no more than 15 soldiers.

Thefirst wave is usually wiped out, said Taras Berezovets, a Ukrainianjournalist, political commentator and officer in the Ukrainianarmy. He said pro-Russian forces would retreat after defeat andleave white ribbons for the next wave to follow.

But while Ukrainian authorities focus on Russian losses, Ukrainian deaths and injuries pile up as well.

Wounded soldiers arrive around the clock for emergency treatmentat a Ukrainian field hospitallocated near the frontline around Bakhmut.

Medics there fought for 30 minutes on Monday to save one soldier, but his injurieswere too severe.

Another had a head injury after shrapnel pierced hishelmet. Medics quickly got him stable enough to transferhim to a military hospital for further treatment.

"We fight to the end to save a life," said surgeon Dr. Kostnyantyn Vasylkevich. "Of course, it hurts when it is not possible to save them."

Why they fight

This fighting has been going on since August. Why do both sides care so much about this particular city?

The city has been Moscow's "main offensive effort" for months despite its "limited operational value,"Britain's Ministry of Defence tweeted in December.

Taking Bakhmutwould potentially allow Russia to threaten larger urban areas Kramatorsk and Sloviansk but the battle has been "disproportionately costly relative to these possible gains," the ministry said.

"There is a realistic possibility that Bakhmut's capture has become primarily a symbolic, political objective for Russia."

The ministry said Tuesday that Russian troops andWagner Group mercenaries wereprobably now in control of Soledar afterfour days of advances.

If confirmed, it would be Russia's most substantialgain since last August.

Moscow's desire for the win is underscored by the presence of the Wagner Group, a private Russian paramilitary organizationrun by an ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Tuesday,"Wagner units took control of the entire territory of Soledar. A cauldron has been formed in the centreof the city in which urban fighting is going on."

ButUkrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar on Tuesday evening said that fighting for the eastern salt mining town was still raging.

"The enemy disregards the heavy losses of its personnel and continues to storm actively," she said. "The approaches to our positions are simply strewn with the bodies of dead enemy fighters. Our fighters are bravely holding the defence."

Zelenskyy and the military command did not mention control of Soledar on Tuesday evening. Zelenskyy repeated his call for more Western weapons, saying Russia was gathering its forces to intensify its campaign which began with its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Prigozhin's men include Russian prisoners, freed under a deal that will hand them a pardon if they fight for six months. But if they join up and desert, they face execution.

In November, independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reported that publicly available data from Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service showed the overall prison population shrank by more than23,000 people in September and October, suggesting many convicts had taken up Prigozhin's offer.

Prigozhin would welcome the political victory a win would bring him in Moscow. Meanwhile, the U.S. says Prigozhin wants control of the saltand gypsum from the mines.

For Ukraine, say experts, the importance of holding Bakhmut aside from its value as a symbolof Ukrainian resistance is partly about sustaining support from Western countries on whose arms supplies Ukraine's war effort is dependent.

With Ukraine having scored a string of battlefield successes, even a relatively insignificant defeat risks creating the perception of stalemate, which could make Western countries less willing to extend support for Kyiv amid their own mounting economic problems stemming from the war.

'Our town used to be so beautiful'

Meanwhile, the scant few ordinary citizenswho remain in the city try to survive.

Bakhmut was home to roughly 70,000 people before the war, but even months ago the population was estimated at closer to 10,000.

Intense shelling hasleft 60 per centof the city in ruins, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said last week.

Like Mariupol and other contested cities, Bakhmut endured a long siege without water and power.

"People who left moved to stay with their children or brothers and sisters. They had places to go," resident Ilona Ierhilieieva said in October as she mixed soup on an open fire by the side of the road. "But as for us, we don't have a place to go. That's why we are here."

Last week, a drive around Bakhmutby Reutersrevealedthe scars ofmonths of bombardment, from smashed storefronts to mangledworkshops and wrecked businesses.

Volunteers like Vasyl Liesin, 30, help to maintain "invincibilitycentres," set up to provide electricity, heat, water, internetservice, mobile phone connections and medicines free of chargeas Russian attacks devastate basic civilian infrastructure.

The centres may demonstrate spirit, but they arefar from invulnerable.

"When we visited another invincibility point yesterday for15, 20 minutes, a rocket hit us. It damaged a volunteer vehicle,killed one person, and injured four," said Liesin, who waswearing a helmet and a flak jacket.

"Volunteers were injured, and one local Bakhmut volunteerlost a limb and was evacuated. I hope that people were in theirprotective gear, but the situation is unclear. We know they wereseriously injured."

Olha, 75, smartly dressed and wearing lipstick, reminisced as she carried shopping bags along a Bahkmut street last week.

"Dear God, our town used to be so beautiful," she said.

"There were roses everywhere, flowers," she added, hardlyflinching at the sound of a distant boom.

WATCH | Russian forces set to capture eastern Ukraine town:

Russia set to capture eastern Ukraine town of Soledar

2 years ago

Duration 2:12

Russia has had few military victories in Ukraine to celebrate lately, but it may be on the verge of one. After days of intense fighting, video on social media appears to show Russian soldiers in the centre of Soledar, a strategic town in the eastern Donbas region.