in the heart of Bakhmout, a city that resists despite the siege of the Russians

The fire chief of the city of Bakhmout is used to driving at full speed through the streets of his city. Residents call him after detecting suspicious objects that could be bombs. Each exit in this besieged city, constantly bombarded, is a perilous operation. The two firefighters arrive at the people who contacted them and inspect the suspicious object. False alarm, it’s an abandoned phone under a piece of paper, unimportant. “We were so scared. Our house has just been bombed too”testifies the owner of the premises.

A fear that the whole city knows. The shelling became a background noise with the Russians three kilometers away. “Bakhmut is currently the hottest corner of the country. The Russians have made it clear that they want to capture the city within a month,” worries Yurii Gallich, fire chief. Bakhmout is one of the few places where the Russians are still on the offensive. It is Wagner’s militiamen who are on the move and are putting all their forces into the battle to obtain this symbolic victory, but the Ukrainians are resisting”, informs Marc de Chalvron, special envoy to Bakhmout.