The expected massive offensive in eastern Ukraine for several weeks may already be taking place. The situation is increasingly delicate for Volodymyr Zelensky’s troops, particularly in Bakhmout, where the violent fighting in recent months has escalated even further.
To access this bruised city, which has become a target for Moscow, only one road remains passable, the others being under constant fire from the Russian army. And inside Bakhmout, the streets are almost deserted.
When they are not refugees at home, the inhabitants live sheltered in shelters, where they can find food, heat or watch the news.
“What can we do? We can’t do anything. We live from day to day. My home is here. My destiny is here,” Petro, 70, who refuses to leave his town, told BFMTV.
“My conscience tells me to be where it is difficult”
Living in Bakhmout, or rather surviving, is constantly hearing rifle shots and the impact of rockets or projectiles. Every movement of the soldiers that BFMTV has been able to follow is painstaking: you have to hide behind buildings and run to avoid becoming a target.
“My conscience tells me to be where it’s hard,” said Mark Kouptchenenko, Bakhmout’s chaplain. “And as a priest, I want Ukrainian warriors, Ukrainian military to defend our country with God in their hearts.”
“You see, being in those conditions, for a long time… you really learn to accept your mortality,” he continues on the BFMTV microphone.
The chaplain puts his strength in spirituality, and strives to transmit it to each combatant through a prayer… before returning to the battlefield.
Source: BFM TV
