‘All hell broke loose’: weary soldiers tell of frontline holdout in Ukraine city

Troops in Bakhmut describe perilous fight as city standing in way of Russian advance is pounded by missiles

Seven miles from Ukraine's frontline, resting Ukrainian soldiers were smoking cigarettes on benches in the shade outside a military hospital. The constant thud of artillery could be heard in the distance. The city of Bakhmut felt deserted. There was little sense of life from before the war - no children, cars, and barely any people. Windows were boarded up with only a handful of civilians on the streets. Almost the only activity had been brought here by the war.

The soldiers, weary and jaded, described a perilous fight to hold Ukraine's east. First a relentless bombardment by Russian heavy equipment, quickly followed by advancing tanks and infantry soldiers - whose job it is to clean up" any Ukrainian troops left standing.