Ukraine's Bakhmut: Inside the frontline city • FRANCE 24 English

Foreigner As of mid-December 2022, the

city

has become the most active and violent front line in Ukraine. It is divided by the Barmutka River for months. Ukrainian forces have held on to the western part of the

city

. The Russians have entered the outskirts and are fighting in the streets. The sides have deployed artillery and are firing day and night, okay, just go, go, go, go, go, go, go, away, yes, exactly, so straight. As far as possible, in this way, these Ukrainian soldiers return from the front line, just a few hundred meters away. shoot them and they respond, we push them back a little, it's going well, it's a tragedy, death is someone's life, the future of their families, Ukraine will prevail abroad, this building is used as an evacuation point for soldiers wounded, they are too close 200 meters 300 meters maximum and they are fighting, but you can go up, they want to take the city because, for reasons, it is a very important city for them, they can also start placing grammer loans, we cannot, we cannot give them This opportunity, civilians have become oblivious to the fighting around them.

After months of constant bombings, every day they walk here, they don't care or are scared, the situation is normal, could you please leave this area? What are you doing in this sector? They are being bombed. Bakmut was a city of 70,000 people before the war now it is a battlefield there is no water electricity gas telephone connection or Internet Anikolai and her three children rushed to one of the city's humanitarian aid centers residents come here to charge their phones use Wi-Fi to heat themselves and I found a foreign company that landed in a building that was not in our apartment but in the neighbor's class my husband and I had to put out the fire on our own my school is destroyed it was school number five if you want to evacuate there is a house, it is a nice place they are offering the whole house.

I can make a call right now. It is a very nice place. It will be perfect for children. We understand that there are kind people who can host us and help us, but they will eventually be found. the same situation and then they too will need help for now the fighting is here but it could spread there too the volunteer couldn't convince Anna and her family to leave the people have been living in basements the only thing they had there was a Russian radio . They spent a lot of time in an information vacuum They were told that husbands would be forced to join the army or be sent to prison They were told many things More than 90 percent of Bakmut residents have fled Life is hard in the city Some of those who stayed finally give up like Angelina it's horrible, just horrible, they are bombing us you walk around and wonder when you might get hit you live each day as if it were your last it's scary the atmosphere is psychologically oppressive I want to leave because I can't here do nothing I just want to wash I'm sorry to say three days ago the artillery destroyed the apartment where Angelina lived these are the windows this is the kitchen and that is our room that's where we slept There was a big bed now everything is covered in broken glass and the walls are have completely collapsed.

I went deaf. The shock wave hit me on the right side. He was limping. This blow convinced Angelina and her boyfriend Maxime to evacuate six weeks early. The young woman had already done it. I was forced to leave the family apartment here is my house here the building was hit and collapsed most of the residents died by chance Angelina's entire family was out that day so everyone survived they had to extract the bodies a firefighter died Lo I feel, it is very difficult I want to cry now that most of my relatives are gone and I also want to evacuate, but my father will not go, if he does he will choose Russia, we have different points of view.

I am a patriot and in the family we prefer not to talk about it. In this Russian-speaking region, the conflict has divided families between pro-Ukrainians and pro-Russians. Jelena mentioned that her father is a very religious man. We attended Sunday mass at Bahut's main Russian Orthodox church in the hope of finding him. The service is held in the Alexander Crypt. In fact, Angelina's father will attend with two of her children. Alexander agrees to talk to us at his house. His house is right in the middle of the battlefield. The projectile landed here. Our window was broken. We were lucky, very lucky.

Most of the shrapnel flew this way. We were lucky it exploded on the side. Alexander and his children have adapted to daily life under constant bombardment. Well, now we are more or less used to it, but at first we couldn't sleep at night. It was so scary that the whole house was shaking. the ground was shaking like jelly literally like jelly the war has divided this family into three parts Alexander's wife has fled to Russia with her grandson Angelina is about to join her pro-Ukrainian brother in the west and Alexander has decided to stay here with two of his children I think that Ukraine, if you want to call it that, Ukraine is one country with Russia and Belarus, one town, one tree with different branches and one route.

It hurts me. Angelina is a difficult question for me. I think she really doesn't want to see. No one forced her to leave anymore. She left on her own initiative. No one kicked her out. She just didn't like her way of life. She wanted freedom. Freedom in the worst sense of the word. Foreign soldiers have fortified their positions by digging trenches. If you want to live, dig deeper. You can hide, the more likely you are to survive. The trenches are new, we are finishing them, we are creating loopholes, if the Russians come crawling from this side, we will have good firing positions abroad.

The battle is raging in the eastern part of the city. Ukrainian forces say they have retaken some blocks, pushing back Russian soldiers and Wagner group mercenaries. They must be on psychedelic drugs or have been completely brainwashed. They just don't give up. They are unstoppable. horrible they are like orcs the situation is complicated we eliminate them but they come back again and again like cockroaches we have many losses many wounded soldiers the ukrainian army does not give exact casualty figures but a constant flow of wounded soldiers is transported from bakmut to military hospitals five ambulances arrive In less than an hour they tell us that this hospital alone receives around 100 wounded soldiers a day.

I was hit by a mortar shell that broke my leg. That's all. What can I say? I'm fine. my leg hurts apart from this everything is fine everything was going well then the shooting started when it became very intense everyone hid in the trenches I felt a very sharp pain I understood that it was shrapnel I tried to move my fingers they moved but I realized that my bones were broken I heard a crunch when I moved my fingers the hardest fights take place inside the forest now the hardest ones the chocolate really helped the next morning Angelina and Maxime are ready to leave, we meet them in a basement where they have your bags packed let's go I'm happy to leave the war zone but I'm sad to leave my city behind I hope to return one day the evacuation bus is driven by volunteers who pick up people from the Front Line cities and take them to a safe place today Angelina and Maxime are the only passengers, sometimes there are two other times, there are 15.

It depends, the problem is that the cell phone network does not work, so we arrive here at regular times and we also pick up people who manage to call us. I cried yesterday. It's very hard I don't want to leave but there is no job or money you are cold and hungry all the time I want to live not just survive next stop Nepal 260 kilometers to the west there Angelina and Maxime will have to start a new life while they wait for peace to return to When Bahamut leaves the city, the university is on fire, hit by another projectile.