Hell on earth, "the city where there is no living place" or "the hottest place in the world", this is how Bakhmut is described, the city in eastern Ukraine where the fiercest battles are taking place between the Ukrainian troops, who are trying to defend their country, and the Russian troops, interested in seizing new territories.

The descriptions belong to some young Ukrainian soldiers who lived, for no less than three months, the terror of the confrontations in Bakhmut.

No matter if it was day or night, frost or mud, cold or hot, rain or snow, holiday or ordinary day, Monday or Sunday, they were continuously on the battlefield, within the range of the Russian artillery.

They saw death through their eyes, but even worse, they saw their comrades killed by the enemy. With low morale and depleted powers, they find their last resources to withstand the invasion from the East.


Such moments were experienced by Oleh Sapig, a young lieutenant in the Ukrainian army. He is 36 years old, and the last three months have been a never ending nightmare.

"Our mission was to defend the positions in Bakhmut, to pursue the enemy and not allow the enemy to occupy new positions. The city practically no longer exists, it is destroyed, the enemy constantly attacks neighbourhood after neighbourhood, destroys all the infrastructure, the local population practically no longer exists, those who remain are forced to seek shelter in basements and, when the Russians destroy the buildings in the basement of which they found shelter, they have to leave the city. The situation is very complicated. The saddest moments are related to death to my comrades. The wounded and the dead. This is the most difficult for me. Second is the difficulty of evacuating the wounded soldiers, because it is very hard to evacuate a wounded one. (...) It is difficult to convey in words what Bakhmut means. There is no living place there. Every position is completely destroyed, from the very foundations. There is nothing left, the whole earth is burning, because of the artillery fire, because of the occupying troops," Oleh, who left the first front line during Friday, told AGERPRES.