Standing by a makeshift stove at the bottom of a bitterly-cold ditch, the Ukrainian troops enjoyed a quick tea break.
Suddenly there was a loud whistle and a crack as a Russian artillery round flew overhead and exploded in a field behind them.
The soldiers barely flinched, hardened by months of war. Instead, their focus was on staying warm.
One of them even carried on calmly cutting into a plastic bottle.
The water inside had frozen solid as temperatures on the frontline plunged below zero.
Peeling away the plastic, he plonked the giant, bottle-shaped ice cube into a pan to melt.
Then came a second round, this one much closer, smashing into a road above them with a punishing crash.
More on Russia
Related Topics:
“That was too near,” said a fellow soldier, before taking a sip of tea from a tin mug.
A Sky News team also in the large ditch had hit the ground at the sound of the first blast and was then ushered towards better cover after the second one – along with the troops.
Advertisement
This is the daily reality for Ukrainian soldiers holding defensive positions in trenches close to the frontline town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces appear determined to try to take the town after suffering humiliating defeats in other parts of the country.
It has made the Battle for Bakhmut one of the fiercest of the war – described as a “meat grinder” because of the scale of the casualties.
One soldier, a company commander who asked to go by his first name Maks, vowed the Russians would never succeed.
“They will throw up more meat and we will destroy it,” he said. “They will launch rockets, but we will hide and then destroy them. They have no chance.”
In a trip on Monday that was cut short by the artillery attack, Maks and other members of a battalion in Ukraine’s 24th King Danylo Brigade showed Sky News around a line of trenches they were digging as part of efforts to help defend Bakhmut.
It is tough work even without the threat of enemy fire as soldiers must also battle the elements.
Armed with a shovel, a soldier called Serhii cut away at chunks of earth as he made a square-shaped trench.
“We are on our land, we need to defend our land,” he said, his breath frosty. “It’s hard but it’s needed.”
Signs of winter were all around – a rucksack and bedding, layered with frost; specks of white on the hard earth; and a green, woollen hat with a frosted covering, hanging off the bare branch of a tree.
These soldiers must fight, eat and sleep in the cold – but they know the Russians must endure the same, many with worse protective clothing.
Temperatures will likely drop even to minus 30 by January and February.
Analysts have said both sides may seek to slow or even pause the fighting when conditions become too harsh. But Ukrainians say they will push on as they have no other choice.
“We will fight – how can we stop?” said Orest, the battalion commander.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
3:59
How will winter affect the war?
Ukrainian and western officials say Wagner, the Russian private military company, has sent large numbers of mercenaries – including convicted criminals released on condition they fight – to launch wave after wave of assaults against Ukrainian positions in Bakhmut.
Conventional Russian forces, withdrawn from the southern city of Kherson in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive last month, have also been added to the fight in recent days, increasing the pressure on Ukrainian lines.
Asked whether the Russians would capture the town, Orest said: “No …we will stop them.”
But Ukrainian troops are paying a heavy price as well.
The commander showed us where Russian rounds over the past two days had crashed into a field close to where his men had been digging, killing one of his soldiers.
This is meant to be a defensive line, set slightly back from the frontline action.
Orest said he has lost a total of seven troops in the past month, mainly doing assaults against Russian positions. He said the nearest Russian point is just over a mile away.
The change of season means there are no longer leaves on the trees, providing top cover from drones, sent to scout targets for artillery to strike – a new peril for both sides.
There is a constant threat of incoming fire – as we later discovered during the tea break.
That artillery attack went on for almost half an hour.
Each time a round struck, the ground shook – a terrifying experience, even from where we had been able to shelter.
Yet this deadly hazard is something the soldiers have grown almost immune to.
After a while, the commander said it was safe to leave.
We made a scramble up a bank of the ditch to our vehicle and sped off. For the troops, they stayed put, dug in for the winter war.
The murder trial of a former senior politician in Kazakhstan who has been accused of beating his wife to death has attracted the attention of the nation, sparking calls for new legislation tackling domestic violence.
Shocking footage showing businessman Kuandyk Bishimbayev, Kazakhstan’sformer economy minister, beating his wife at a family restaurant has been streamed online from the court.
The case has touched a nerve among the public as tens of thousands of people have signed petitions calling for new laws to hold those guilty of abuse to account.
Why is the case so high profile?
The trial of Bishimbayev, 44, is the first in the country to ever be streamed online – making it readily accessible to the 19 million people in Kazakhstan.
The former politician was already well known, having been jailed for bribery in 2018. He spent less than two years of his 10-year sentence in prison before he was pardoned.
Bishimbayev was charged with torturing and killing his wife after her death last November. For weeks, he maintained his innocence but admitted last month in court that he had beaten her and “unintentionally” caused her death.
Saltanat Nukenova, 31, was found dead in November in a restaurant owned by one of her husband’s relatives.
Disturbing CCTV footage shows the defendant, a father of four, dragging his wife by her hair, and then punching and kicking her.
Hours after it was recorded, she died of brain trauma.
Bishimbayev’s lawyers initially disputed medical evidence indicating Ms Nukenova died from repeated blows to the head.
They also portrayed her as prone to jealousy and violence, although no video from the restaurant’s security cameras that was played in court has shown her attacking Bishimbayev.
According to a 2018 study backed by UN Women, about 400 women die as a result of domestic violence in Kazakhstan every year, although many go unreported.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Tens of thousands of people in the country have signed a petition calling for harsher measures against perpetrators of domestic violence in the wake of Ms Nukenova’s tragic death.
The signatures resulted in senators approving a bill which toughens spousal abuse laws last month – dubbed “Saltanat’s Law”.
Aitbek Amangeldy, Ms Nukenova’s brother and a key prosecution witness, told the Associated Press he had no doubt his sister’s tragic fate has shifted attitudes about domestic violence.
“It changes people’s minds when they see directly what it looks like when a person is tortured.”
Police in riot gear have raided Columbia University and arrested pro-Palestinian protesters occupying one of its buildings.
Around 30 to 40 people have been removed from the Manhattan university’s Hamilton Hall, according to police.
The raid came hours after New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the demonstration at the Ivy League school “must end now”.
He also claimed the demonstration had been infiltrated by “professional outside agitators”.
University bosses said they called in the New York Police Department (NYPD) after protesters “chose to escalate the situation through their actions”.
“After the university learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalised, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” a university spokesman said in a statement.
“The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing.
“We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law.”
The protest began when students barricaded the entrance of Hamilton Hall at Columbia’s campus on Tuesday and unfurled a Palestinian flag out of a window.
Advertisement
Video footage showed protesters locking arms in front of the hall and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building.
Those behind the protest said they had renamed the building “Hind’s Hall” in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl killed in a strike on Gaza in February.
Demonstrators said they had planned to remain at the hall until the university conceded to the Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s (CUAD) three demands: divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.
“Columbia will be proud of these students in five years,” said Sweda Polat, one of the student negotiators for CUAD.
She said students did not pose a danger and called on police to back down.
Officers raided the campus on Tuesday night after university bosses wrote to New York City officials and the NYPD formally asking for assistance.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
A large group of officers dressed in riot gear entered the campus late on Tuesday evening. Officers were also seen entering the window of a university building via a police-branded ladder vehicle, nicknamed “the bear”.
Earlier, Mayor Adams urged demonstrators to leave the site. “Walk away from this situation now and continue your advocacy through other means,” he said.
Columbia University also threatened academic expulsions for students involved in the demonstration.
Protests at Columbia earlier this month kicked off demonstrations which have spread to university campuses from California to Massachusetts.
Dozens of people were arrested on Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia, and New Jersey.
Police moved to clear an encampment at Yale University in Connecticut on Tuesday morning, but there were no immediate reports of arrests.
Meanwhile, the president of the University of South California issued a statement on Tuesday after a swastika was drawn on the campus.
“I condemn any antisemitic symbols or any form of hate speech against anyone,” Carol Folt said.
“Clearly it was drawn there just to incite even more anger at a time that is so painful for our community. We’re going to work to get to the bottom of this immediately, and it has just been removed.”
Earlier, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said President Joe Biden believed students occupying buildings was “absolutely the wrong approach” and “not an example of peaceful protest”.
Police in Georgia’s capital have used water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades against crowds outside the country’s parliament protesting against a bill the opposition says aims to crack down on press freedoms.
The legislation being debated by parliamentarians will require media and non-commercial organisations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the streets of Tbilisi on Tuesday to oppose the legislation.
Clashes erupted between security forces and protesters as they faced tear gas, water cannon and stun grenades.
Reuters eyewitnesses saw some police officers physically attack protesters, who threw eggs and bottles at them, before deploying the tactics to force crowds from outside the parliament building, the news agency reported.
After being dispersed, thousands continued to block Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue, barricading it with cafe tables and rubbish bins. Some shouted “slaves” and “Russians” at police.
Levan Khabeishvili, the leader of Georgia‘s largest opposition party, the United National Movement, posted an image on X with his face bloodied and sporting a black eye.
A party official told Reuters that Mr Khabeishvili was beaten by police after disappearing from central Tbilisi.
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who is opposed to the bill and whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said in a post on X the crackdown had been “totally unwarranted, unprovoked and out of proportion” and that the protests had been peaceful.
Advertisement
The bill has heightened political divisions, setting the ruling Georgian Dream party against a protest movement backed by opposition groups, communities, celebrities and the figurehead president.
It is viewed by the opposition as authoritarian and bearing a resemblance to Russian anti-independent media legislation.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:44
Politicians brawl in parliament
Critics have labelled the divisive bill “the Russian law”, comparing it to Moscow’s “foreign agent” legislation which has been used to crack down on dissent there.