In the ‘Bakhmut meat grinder’, deadlocked enemy forces slog it out

A resident leaves his home after Russian shelling destroyed a block in Bakhmut this week. Photograph: Libkos/AP

In a smothering fog cloaking the woods of the Donbas, the sound of artillery takes on a spooky, disconnected quality.

Guns crack nearby, invisible among the skeletal branches. Shells whicker in the gloom towards the Russian lines around the key city of Bakhmut, distant thuds marking when they hit their targets. When the Russian guns fire back, it’s with a different sound, the crump of incoming fire.