in Bakhmout, civilians “on the front line for more than six months”

Russian forces are tightening their grip on Bakhmout in Ukraine a little more each day. But the city of Donbass is still controlled by troops from kyiv who are resisting the deluge of fire and the assaults of Russian forces. Nearly 5,000 inhabitants against 70,000 before the invasion launched by Vladimir Putin a year ago, are still in this locality in eastern Ukraine.

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The last civilians of Bakhmout are exhausted. Vera, 75, lives alone in her small apartment spared from the strikes. She went out for a few moments with a huge canvas bag. “I collect boxes to light my stove at home, she says. Here is the horror. In a word, it’s a real hell. There is no running water, no electricity. To be able to wash myself, I melt snow.”

Survival under the bombs. And in the midst of this desolate landscape, rare businesses are open, but only for a few hours a day. Natalia is employed in a small convenience store. “It’s difficult, she describes. We are afraid because we have been living on the front line for more than six months. But you have to work, continue to serve people. That’s what we’re here for.”

The crowded “invincibility center”

But civilians are not left to their own devices. Volunteers welcome them in collective places qualified as “centers of invincibility”. Hot meals, electricity, internet connection or basic pharmacy services to help them get through the winter. It is regularly crowded. Larissa is a retiree with a radiant smile: “I love France! I love the French language. It upsets me. When I was young and there were French films showing at the cinema, I ran to see them.” Larissa does not intend to leave the city. “I have dogs. I’m not going to abandon them. I have five. They are like children, they understand everything.”

Larissa refuses to leave Bakhmout, despite repeated appeals from the authorities who nevertheless facilitate evacuations, unlike Irina who is about to get into a van with a transport box for her cat. “Yesterday, our house was hit by a bombardment. We were extracted from the rubble by the army. We were very scared. So we decided to leave. It’s over, we won’t be coming back.” Irina lived 42 years in Bakhmout. She leaves behind a tearful friend whom she failed to convince to follow her and a town partly in ruins.