On the front line in Bakhmut, as Ukraine and Russia battle for control
BAKHMUT, Ukraine — The Ukrainian soldiers jumped out of the armored vehicle the moment it stopped, rushing to unload supplies before the Russian artillery began its deadly work.
It wasn't fast enough. Barely 40 seconds later came the first shriek. The men hit the ground as the blast hit, the smell of cordite and dust going deep into their nostrils.
"Go, go, go, go," one shouted. The others sprinted through a building's smoke-filled courtyard, feet crunching over a carpet of broken glass, masonry and splintered wood. As they ran down the stairs, another shriek sounded above. Then another.
If war is hell, there's a creditable case Bakhmut is its ninth circle. The city in Ukraine's east, known in the past for little other than its first-class winery (established by Stalin in 1950), has become the battleground of this war's longest and most vicious fight.
No building remains untouched by ordnance, no surface
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