The battle for Bakhmut: Ukrainian city a smoking ruin as Russians forced back in disarray by counterattack
An armoured personnel carrier kicks up dust as it careers across the drying land.
The harsh winter here has turned to spring and the boggy farm tracks have hardened.
After months of setbacks, the change in seasons has ushered in a change of pace for the Ukrainian army.
In the open land around Bakhmut, they are now advancing on their enemy.
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The Institute for the Study of War assesses around 10 square miles of land around the beleaguered city has been liberated in the last week.
We were the first journalists to join the 3rd brigade, the fighters responsible for the counteroffensive that triggered more fighting on the northern and southern flanks of Bakhmut, and they wanted to show us how they were forcing the Russians back.
The fighting here remains fierce and the last few hundred metres towards the new frontline have to be made on foot, across open ground.
The new Russian lines are not far away.
It’s just a few hundred metres from where we tread.
Helmet camera footage shows Ukrainian soldiers clearing areas of Russian forces
Ukrainian soldiers advance towards Russian positions
An army in disarray
As we walk into what was Russian-occupied territory just days ago you can hear the sound of small arms fire – machine guns crackle in the distance – and we’re told they’re trying to take it back.
Our military guide, Dotsent, shows us the foxholes where the Russians hid when the Ukrainian surprise assault began.
“Here they were crawling,” he tells us, pointing to a trench in a treeline decimated by shrapnel and gunfire.
Many were obviously wounded; there were used tourniquets, field dressings and torn clothing all around.
A helmet with a bullet hole lay on the ground.
Ammunition crates were left behind as those who could fled in a hurry.
It is a snapshot of an army in disarray.
Russian soldiers can be seen fleeing Ukraine’s forces
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Dotsent was part of the assault and he describes a bloody fight.
The positions of those who refused to surrender were stormed with armoured vehicles or cleared out with grenades.
What should be fields of wheat are pockmarked by the shelling.
Dotsent tells us: “Regarding the size of our advance and how many casualties the Russians had through the whole line – and this is only preliminary information – it’s awesome. And this lifts our morale. Everyone is now in high spirits.”
But such offensives come at a cost too.
“Yes, we also had casualties, two people died and they were very young. What can we do?”
Dotsent has been involved in the assault on Russia’s forces
As we were leaving a soldier appeared from further along the front with a pick-up truck carrying a dead Russian from the battlefield.
“Our people killed him. Maybe it was mortars because he has a lot of wounds. There are a lot of dead bodies. Too many.”
He is impatient to leave, the sound of the shelling nearby is getting louder and he says he has a lot of work still to do.
Ukrainian soldiers use grenades to clear parts of Bakhmut and storm Russian positions
A Ukrainian soldier fires a gun from the side of an armoured vehicle
‘Of course we are optimistic’
At the brigade’s underground bunker a few kilometres from the frontline, soldiers scan the landscape for Russian movements using drones.
They show us a livestream of the city of Bakhmut.
It’s a grey, smoking ruin of destroyed and burned buildings.
Nothing has been spared from the shelling.
A Ukrainian soldier says the troops are ‘optimistic’
And despite Ukraine’s success in recent days Russia still controls 90% of the city.
It has been the focus of their military campaign for months.
But with Ukraine’s new Western weapons, additional training and successes like these the Ukrainian soldiers here are confident they can win back their country.
They tell us: “Of course we are optimistic. We know what we are doing, we know how we must do our attack or our defence. We know that in the end, maybe two, three, five years, I don’t know, we will win this war.”
When the main counteroffensive comes is still a guessing game – even for the troops on the ground.
But they know their time is coming and they say they are ready.
Spain is to legalise about 300,000 undocumented migrants a year – at a time that many European countries are seeking to limit or deter migration.
The policy, approved on Tuesday by Spain’s left-wing minority coalition government, aims to tackle the country’s ageing workforce and low birthrate.
Around 250,000 registered foreign workers a year are needed to maintain the country’s welfare state, according to migration minister Elma Saiz.
The scheme, due to run from May next year until 2027, will allow foreigners living in Spain without proper documentation to obtain work permits and residency.
The exact number of foreigners living in Spain without documentation is unclear.
However, around 54,000 undocumented migrants reached Spain so far this year by sea or land, according to government figures.
Many arrive via the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago located off the coast of northwestern Africa.
Spain’s minister of inclusion, social security and migration, Elma Saiz. Pic: AP
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The figure compares to the 30,000 people who have arrived in the UK via small boats across the Channel so far in 2024.
The UK, as well as other European nations, including Germany, France, and the Netherlands, have in recent years taken tougher stances on migration.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
However, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has often described his government’s migration policies as a way to combat the country’s low birthrate.
The government’s new policy simplifies the administrative processes for short and long-term visas and provides migrants with additional workplace protections.
It also extends a visa offered previously to job-seekers for three months to one year.
Many migrants make a living in Spain’s underground economy as fruit pickers, caretakers, delivery drivers, or other low-paid jobs.
Migration minister Ms Saiz said the government’s new policy would help prevent abuse and “serve to combat mafias, fraud and the violation of rights”.
World
Alec Baldwin’s Rust premieres three years after fatal shooting – but cinematographer’s mother refuses to attend
Alec Baldwin’s Western film Rust has premiered at a festival in Poland, three years after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set.
The movie debuted at the Camerimage Festival in Poland, an event focusing on achievements in cinematography, to an audience of a few hundred – a more low-key affair than the typical fanfare of Hollywood releases.
Director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the shooting, said he hoped the completed film would now be a tribute to Ms Hutchins – who died after a prop gun held by Baldwin went off during filming in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021.
Rust director Joel Souza attended the film’s premiere in Poland. Pic: Reuters
Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter and went on trial in July – but the case was dismissed in dramatic fashion during the hearing after the prosecution was accused of concealing ammunition evidence.
The star did not attend the premiere in Poland.
Speaking beforehand, Souza said it “wasn’t an easy decision by any means” to continue the film after Hutchins’s death, “but it became important to me and important to her husband that people see her final work”.
The church scene they were working on when Hutchins was shot has gone from the film, he said.
“It doesn’t exist anymore. We were never going to finish that… I changed the script and so I wiped that out of it.”
Cinematographer’s mother criticises Baldwin
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Pic: Swen Studios/Handout via Reuters
Bianca Cline, the cinematographer who completed the film, also attended the event.
Ms Hutchins’s mother Olga Solovey, who has filed a lawsuit against Baldwin, did not attend and criticised the star for allegedly “unjustly” profiting from the tragedy.
In a statement issued by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, she said she had always hoped to watch her daughter’s “work come alive on screen” alongside her.
However, this opportunity was “ripped away”, she said.
Ms Solovey said Baldwin had not apologised to her and that her pain was increased by his “refusal to take responsibility”. She said there had been “no justice” for her daughter.
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Rust’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez, who was in charge of weapons on the set, was jailed for 18 months earlier this year, after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter during a trial separate to Baldwin’s. She is appealing the sentence.
Rust is billed as the story of a 13-year-old boy who, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following their parents’ deaths in 1880s Wyoming, goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather after being sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.
The Polish festival’s ticketing website reportedly crashed on Tuesday morning due to high demand for tickets to the world premiere.
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