Desperate Ukrainian troops realized they had been deployed to Bakhmut only to be sent to die without the artillery to fight the Russians. Photo/REUTERS
They complained that they did not have artillery and were only targets for troops to fire on Russia .
Bakhmut, a small town in eastern Ukraine, has become a horrific battleground as Moscow forces intensify their offensives over the winter.
While Kiev’s military and Western media describe “heavy losses” on Moscow’s military front, Ukrainian troops have spoken of their own desperate struggle for survival against Russia’s nearly limitless stockpile of artillery and personnel.
“When they drove us to Bakhmut, I already knew that I would be sent to death,” a Ukrainian soldier told me The Kyiv Independent unnamed near Kramatorsk, about 25 km west of the front line.
“(Russia) continues to fire at us, but we have no artillery – so we have nothing to counterattack them,” added Volodymyr, whose surname has been withheld to protect his identity.
“I don’t know if I will come back or not. [Pasukan] we just got killed.”
Russia’s progress relies heavily on members of the Wagner Group mercenary group. The group has made gains in Bakhmut.
