Moscow has put all its strength in the battle, after its failures in the north of the country, and aims at the conquest of the last territories of the regions of Louhansk and Donetsk still under Ukrainian control.
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Rare vehicles covered with earth and dust rushes on the road to desolation, waving on the asphalt between the impacts of rockets and the cut electric cables. Some burned heads still venture, under an intense Russian artillery fire, towards Sievierodonetsk, without being sure to achieve it. Classic military convoys will no longer strengthen the front, and civilians can no longer, at that time, run away. At the head of a unit of three vans and two ambulances, an officer has just back up the mobile rescue post to the suburbs of Bakhmout. In the distance, the sound of cannons is incessant. Steel thunderstorms fall on the Donbass campaigns.
In the streets of Bakhmout, fighters come to blow an hour or two before leaving for the front. Rue Gorbatova, a counter is still used chawarmas, burgers and hot dogs. Special forces who study the fighting map on an electronic table, young volunteers come from everywhere to strengthen the defenses of Donbass there, and even some old veterans of the Soviet army, one of which has known the Afghanistan War, having regained service against Moscow. A column of tanks goes up rue Gorbatova, a German shepherd wedged on its hinged legs on a turret, shuddering muzzle in the wind, the imperial air.