In the ‘Bakhmut meat grinder’, deadlocked enemy forces slog it out

Ukrainians have the technical advantage but Russians persist in sacrificing troops to take an area with no strategic value

In a smothering fog cloaking the woods of the Donbas, the sound of artillery takes on a spooky, disconnected quality.

Guns crack nearby, invisible among the skeletal branches. Shells whicker in the gloom towards the Russian lines around the key city of Bakhmut, distant thuds marking when they hit their targets. When the Russian guns fire back, it's with a different sound, the crump of incoming fire.