This small Ukrainian city is the beating heart of the fight for our world

Bakhmut has morphed into a strategic gateway to Donbas: the greatest prize for Vladimir Putin, writes Bel Trew

Bakhmut is the key to taking the nearby Ukrainian-held cities in Donetsk, like Kramatorsk and Slovyansk – if Bakhmut falls, the east falls (Reuters)

In Bakhmut, the shells land like clockwork. The sound splinters the dead grey air with a disturbing regularity. They claw up streets that dazed residents pick through on bicycles barely flinching.

Before the war, this eastern city was home to some 70,000 people, and internationally was pretty much unknown. After 10 months of war, only an eighth of the population remains as the area has faced the full fury of the Russian army, its affiliated proxies and mercenaries. The result is that the buildings look like sunken cathedrals; the roads are reefs of destruction.

There I met civilians living half-lives, half underground, building basement stoves to survive the winter. I met first responders fighting every day, at great risk to themselves, to try to keep the population alive.