Inside Bakhmut’s blackened nightmare Ukrainians are terrified – but Russia’s domination could be a pyrrhic victory
It is a long, nervy and treacherous walk to the frontline trenches around Bakhmut.
As we make our way through woodland, the war crashes and booms around us.
Although Ukraine has made small gains in the open ground around the flanks, its hold inside the city is looking increasingly desperate.
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Russia has captured at least 95% of the buildings and is still pushing forward.
To get to the defensive positions outside the main city means leaving cover and traversing farmland.
Russian drones are looking for movement – targets for their artillery.
As we move we hear shells screeching overhead and then the heart-thumping moment they smash into the ground just a few hundred metres away.
In the trenches, the soldiers are hardened to the dangers – and from here you can see the city up close.
Bakhmut appears like a vision from a nightmare.
The buildings are just blackened bones of a place where people used to live.
On the horizon, we witness a smoking wreck of rubble and death.
If it falls it will be a pyrrhic victory for Moscow – they’ve lost tens of thousands of soldiers here.
But it will be a major military and psychological blow for Ukraine nonetheless – Kyiv has invested a huge amount in its defence.
Read more on the battle for Bakhmut:
Ukrainian city a smoking ruin as Russians forced back in disarray
The battle of Bakhmut is not about seizing vital ground
‘We will fight to the end’
From a covered position we watch as shell after shell is unleashed on this city under siege.
Bakhmut has seen the fiercest urban combat of anywhere in the world since the Second World War.
The men who are its defenders tell us they are only holding on. But they will not give up.
One soldier tells me: “We are on our land and we will protect this land.
“We have a great motivation, a very great motivation, to protect our land.
“And I think that the enemy understands that we will fight to the end.”
Further along the frontline is the city of Chasiv Yar and with Russia controlling nearly all of Bakhmut, it could be next.
From the window of a shattered apartment block, the troops here show me where Vladimir Putin’s forces are moving.
Use the sliders below to see Maxar satellite images of Bakhmut 12 months ago compared to today
‘It’s a scary situation’
The crisp spring day is fractured by the thunderous sound of shells exploding nearby.
Large plumes of smoke mushroom over the tree line.
Ukraine’s main counteroffensive may not have started but the fighting remains intense.
At the command centre, they know the big push is looming – but until it starts they must keep Russia from advancing further.
It is not easy.
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Inside the battle for Bakhmut
The Deputy Section Commander, Andriy, speaks candidly about the reality of this grinding conflict.
“Enemy forces attack our positions every day, night and day… we fight for all the power we have, and I don’t know – it’s actually a very difficult and scary situation.”
This war is exacting a terrible price on Ukraine.
Every building is battered – and it’s getting worse
The most savage fighting, in the Donbas, has forced the majority from their homes – here shells land in streets without warning.
As we drive we see a vehicle on fire. It’s just been hit by artillery.
Every building is battered.
And Moscow’s indiscriminate use of violence is getting worse.
It’s becoming a nightly occurrence – towns and cities are being hit with barrages of missiles and drones.
In Kramatorsk, we see frightened people clearing up after a large bomb exploded in their neighbourhood in the middle of the night.
There’s no military target here – just apartment blocks – and civilians who are terrified.
Valentyna was sleeping at the time of the explosion.
She tells me: “I trembled, could not stand up, and take at least one step. I was shaking.
“My son dragged me into the bathroom. When we left, there was dust everywhere – terrible.”
Each day in Ukraine brings more carnage and each day this war goes on there’s a little less hope.
At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.
The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.
It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
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In March, Sky’s Stuart Ramsay described escalating violence within Syria
The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.
But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.
It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.
Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.
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UK aims to build relationship with Syria
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Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.
The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.
The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.
Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.
He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.
Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.
Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.
The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.
(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.
Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.
World
IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike
The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.
Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.
The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.
A wounded child is treated after the strike on the water collection point. Pic: Reuters
Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.
Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.
When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.
Blood stains are seen on containers at the water collection point. Pic: Reuters
In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.
Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.
Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.
The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.
The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.
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Palestinians shot while seeking aid, says paramedic
The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.
More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Read more:
Palestinians shot while seeking aid, says paramedic
Dozens of MPs call for UK to recognise Palestine as state
US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.
But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.
Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
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