Water, Dumplings, Camaraderie: Volunteers Help Locals With Life In Ukraine's Beleaguered Bakhmut
Bakhmut residents gather at one of the volunteer-run "Points of Invincibility" to get a warm meal, recharge their phones, and share a sense of community as Russian forces continue to pummel the city in Ukraine's Donetsk region.
BAKHMUT, Ukraine -- There is no drinking water in Bakhmut. Locals in the besieged city survive by collecting rainwater or melting snow.
In one neighborhood recently, a group of young men are preparing to drill a well as artillery fire echoes in the distance. One man introduces himself as Havriyil, a volunteer from Kyiv.
"We will get water for the people," he says as he shovels out the hole while the others prepare the drill. The team hopes to drill several such wells around the city in the coming days. Until that happens, volunteers will continue bringing water in by truck over pitted roads, often under enemy fire.
Working against the backdrop of artillery barrages in the beleaguered city was "only scary for the first half hour," Havriyil said with a fleeting smile.
Russian forces have been pummeling Bakhmut since October in a determined effort to capture the Donetsk region city, whose prewar population of more than 70,000 has been reduced to just 8,700, according to local authorities.
The devastation of the city and its surroundings has been nearly total in what Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin-connected businessman who runs the ostensibly private Wagner mercenary group that is conducting the assault, has called "the Bakhmut meat-grinder."
In PHOTOS: The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
'What Madness Looks Like': Russia Intensifies Bakhmut Assault As Ukraine Holds The Line
1/13Ukrainian soldiers near Bakhmut fire mortars toward Russian positions on January 11.
The assaults on Bakhmut are being led by soldiers from Russia's notorious private mercenary company the Vagner Group, according to Ukrainian, Western, and Russian officials. Some reports point to World War I-style "human wave" infantry attacks.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
2/13A Ukrainian soldier smokes a cigarette at his position near Bakhmut.
Located astride two major crossroads, Bakhmut has been all but emptied of its 70,000 residents, as the city's buildings and homes have nearly all been destroyed.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
3/13Ukrainian tanks roll toward the front line in the Donetsk region.
Ukrainian troops are defending Bakhmut's northern, eastern, and southern approaches against Russian forces, who are launching ferocious attacks to seize territory that some analysts say is of no strategic military value.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
4/13The ferocity of the attacks can be seen in this satellite image supplied on January 11 that shows the crater-scarred landscape east of Bakhmut.
"Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this week of the scene around Bakhmut and the nearby city of Soledar, another focus of Moscow's attacks.
"The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes," Zelenskiy said. "This is what madness looks like."
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
5/13Even Ukrainian commanders say Russia's obsession with Bakhmut is perplexing.
"Militarily, Bakhmut has no strategic importance," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, said recently.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
6/13Ukrainian soldiers on patrol in Bakhmut on January 12.
"But it has psychological significance," Syrskiy said, due to a series of earlier battlefield losses inflicted by Ukrainian troops in the northwestern Kharkiv region and in the southern Kherson region.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
7/13Capturing the city "will be symbolic for the enemy," Syrskiy said. "Therefore, [Russia] is trying in any way to take control of this city."
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
8/13Ukrainian soldiers on patrol near Bakhmut.
Bakhmut is located about 700 kilometers east of Kyiv and about 80 kilometers north of the regional capital, Donetsk. It was one of the earliest sites of open conflict in 2014, when Russia first stoked a covert armed insurrection to take control of part of the Donbas.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
9/13A Ukrainian soldier cooks in a shelter in Bakhmut.
Then known as Artemivsk, the city was retaken from Russian-backed fighters in July 2014 by Ukrainian government forces. It was renamed Bakhmut in 2016 and had been largely rebuilt since then, serving as a key trading post and access point for people coming and going from parts of the Donbas that were controlled by Russian-backed militias.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
10/13A military paramedic waits inside his vehicle in Bakhmut.
The city had been indirectly threatened over the months, particularly as Russian forces in early July pushed Ukrainian troops out of the twin cities of Syevyerodonetsk and Lysychansk, 60 kilometers to the northeast. The highway that led from Bakhmut was a key supply route for Ukrainian troops.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
11/13A resident walks next to a destroyed building in Bakhmut.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
12/13Vagner's founder and owner, business tycoon Yevgeny Prigozhin, signaled last month that Bakhmut was a strategic priority, although he also suggested that the destruction of Ukrainian troops was also a goal.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
13/13The outskirts of Bakhmut burn following a Russian attack on December 27.
"Our goal is not Bakhmut itself but the destruction of the Ukrainian Army and the reduction of its combat potential, which is why this operation was dubbed the ‘Bakhmut meat grinder,'" Prigozhin was quoted as saying in a statement distributed on one of his Telegram channels and the social media account VK.
The furious attacks by Moscow's forces to capture the destroyed city of Bakhmut are intensifying. Reports of infantry charges like those seen in World War I have left fields covered in dead Russian soldiers.
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RFE/RL has identified everyone in this story only by their first names because of the security situation in Bakhmut.
'Everything Is OK'
"Over 300 people a day come here," said Kateryna, a volunteer serving hot meals to Bakhmut stalwarts. "Today we have mashed potatoes, pasta, and soup."
"People are fed, get warm, and recharge," she added. "They communicate with their relatives. Everything is OK."
Tetyana is a volunteer and a local resident who refused to leave.
"We need water," she said. "We need fuel for the generators…. There is a shortage of disposable dishes."
About a dozen people eat and drink coffee or tea as Tetyana boils dumplings on top of a makeshift stove at an aid station called a Point of Invincibility. While they eat, people charge their mobile phones and scan the news.
Children play video games at a volunteer-run community center.
"People are always huddled in basements," she added. "It is cold and damp there, so they get sick. We need cold medicines, cough drops, and so on."
Ruslana, 11, clutched a teddy bear that she says was given to her at the aid station. Her mother, Kateryna, said the girl is studying at home and hopes to complete the fourth grade soon.
"We don't plan to," she said when asked if they intended to leave the city. "We like it here. We are doing fine."
Her words were hard to hear over the noise of children playing video games and the sound of explosions outside.
'God, Help Me'
Every day volunteers arrive in Bakhmut to evacuate people who have had enough.
A Bakhmut local named Ihor was on a bus leaving town on January 19, the Feast of the Epiphany.
"Today, on the Epiphany, I undressed and went out into the rain and thought. 'God, help me,'" he said. He was traveling to join his family, who had evacuated earlier.
But he hopes to return.
"I want to come back home," he said. "I'm 52 years old…. Everything I own is here."
Anatoliy, an 86-year-old pensioner, refuses to leave Bakhmut.
"I have nowhere to go," he told RFE/RL. "I have no friends. My wife is dead."
"I am alone now," he added. "Where am I going to go? Let them kill me here."
Written by RFE/RL feature writer Robert Coalson based on reporting from Bakhmut by correspondent Serhiy Horbatenko of Donbas.Realities, a regional project of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Serhiy Horbatenko has worked for RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service since 2015 and was awarded by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with an Order of Merit for his coverage of Russia's invasion. He previously worked as a journalist for Public Television of the Donbas; as a regional representative for the commissioner for human rights of the Ukrainian parliament in the Donetsk region; and as an editor at the TV channels TOR and C + (Slovyansk). He is a graduate of Donbas State Pedagogical University.
![Capturing the city "will be symbolic for the enemy," Syrskiy said. "Therefore, [Russia] is trying in any way to take control of this city."](https://gdb.rferl.org/058a0000-0aff-0242-bfc0-08daf3d8144a_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
