Irpin, Kharkiv, Kherson but especially Mariupol. Ukraine has had its share of martyred cities under the blows of the Russian invasion. From now on, it is in the city of Bakhmout, in the east of the country, that Moscow has decided to pursue. Since August 1, the Kremlin and its army have been hitting this Donbass agglomeration. But in the face of their resistance and the humiliations suffered as a result of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russia has once again increased its murderous efforts tenfold in recent weeks.
BFMTV.com takes stock of the situation in this city that has become the main abscess on the Russo-Ukrainian front and the most eloquent symbol of the war.
A terrible testimony
In the Greek from which it comes, the word “martyr” means “witness”. And it is indeed a testimony that Ukraine sent to the world on Tuesday, by releasing the images of Bakhmout, after months of Russian assault. Bakhmout, or rather what is left of it: because in the plans revealed in this way we discover a devastated city, with collapsed buildings, gutted buildings and streets, walls blackened by bombing.
On the set this Wednesday, Patrick Sauce, our international affairs columnist, commented on these startling aerial views: “This Russian desire to take over the city seems even more absurd to us. There is nothing to be gained apart from putting a Russian flag on the Map.”
Russian fever
A municipality may well be wiped off the map, but that doesn’t mean it’s a ghost town. Certainly, much of the 77,000 people who lived there before the war have been emptied, but according to our on-site correspondent, thousands still live there, hiding in basements and mass shelters.
The few passersby found by our team recounted an unbearable daily life -without electricity or running water in certain neighborhoods- made even worse by the rigors of a freezing winter, right down to the water bottles.
In our studies on Tuesday night, Alexandre Makogonov, spokesman for the Russian Embassy in France, blamed the Ukrainians for this human stalemate.
He asks: “If these so-called Ukrainian defenders who defend their country, their people, really care, why don’t they deploy their weapons outside the big cities? Why don’t they fight in the fields? They hide in the residential areas.” . buildings, causing the return fire so that everything is destroyed?
Because the diplomat does not budge: Bakhmout is not a whim of the Kremlin, or rather, madness. No, for him the town rightfully belongs to Russia. “It belongs to Donbass, which is legally Russian land,” he said. “We defend this land that is ours and we defend the people who live there,” Alexander Makogonov said. The latter finally stressed the strategic importance of the place: “Bakhmout opens the way to other cities, such as Kramatorsk, Slaviansk.”
Zelensky praises the region’s “resilience”
Between Russians obsessed with taking what would be their first victory in months and Ukrainian forces determined not to surrender to the enemy, the city is asserting itself more than ever as a fixing point, of tensions in the fighting.
And evidence of the crucial nature of the battle abounds in recent days. The tragically high number of victims demonstrates this quite well: according to our information, between 100 and 200 soldiers are killed daily by bombs and bullets. Bonus sign: Volodymyr Zelensky made the trip to the region.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president traveled 45 km from Bakhmout. Decorating his troops there, he also acknowledged: “Eastern Ukraine is the most difficult axis (of the front). “Thank you for your resilience”, he added to get the attention of the soldiers.
Wagner’s funeral march
For the Russians, Bakhmout is not just about hitting. The invader now deploys on the ground the mercenary infantry of the businessman and ultranationalist activist Evgueny Prigojine, the famous “Wagner group”. No success so far.
The Ukrainians in front of them even explained to our cameras that these militiamen were sent to the front in vain: “The Russians send them as cannon fodder. They don’t consider them human. They send them in waves to the slaughterhouse.” A new outdoor massacre.
Source: BFM TV
