The last remaining residents of Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that has been bombarded by the Russian army since the summer, say they have no intention of fleeing even as the Russians approach, Agence France-Presse said in a report cited by Agerpres.

“How could I leave?” — asks 75-year-old Natalia Shevchenko, who is worried about the high cost of departure.

She has spent so much time in her basement that she feels like a “mole” when she goes outside into the light.

“Don’t worry,” she tells AFP reporters as the sound of shells can be heard in the background. “I’m far away. Now I know where they will fall,” she says.

Russian troops have been trying for months to take control of Bakhmut in the longest and bloodiest battle since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24 last year.

Despite the influx of Western weapons into Ukraine, Russia has announced progress in the region in recent days.

Bakhmut, which had about 75,000 inhabitants before the war, turned into a ghost town, littered with anti-tank weapons and burned cars. There is no more gas, electricity, or water.

Photo: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia

Despite constant artillery and drone attacks, about 7,000 people, most of them elderly, still live here. A 12-year-old boy and a seventy-year-old boy died on Tuesday.

During a visit to Bakhmut on Wednesday, an AFP team could see a plume of smoke in the northern part of the city.

Bloody snow where a Ukrainian military vehicle was hit by a Russian missile a day ago in the west of the city.

Behind the war-torn city, Ukrainian soldiers are trying to strengthen their positions. The river flowing through Bakhmut became the main line of demarcation of hostilities.

Natalia Shevchenko, who lives on the east bank, risks her life every day, crossing the bridge in search of water.

Those who could, left, and others, like Nataliya Shevchenko, seem to have resigned themselves to fate.

“Gas is not so bad. If we had electricity, everything would be easier. We could warm up, cook,” she said.

“The worst thing is that there is no signal. I can’t call my relatives. I have two children, one in Kyiv, the other in Odesa. They have two small children, so he had to go,” she explained.

66-year-old Nadiya Burdinska claims that she has lived in Bakhmut all her life and has no intention of leaving, even if, she adds, under such conditions “only a madman is not afraid.”

“Everything is possible, God willing, I will stay alive,” she says in front of the Soviet building, where she is dragging several bags of firewood.

To keep warm, she had to buy a wood stove for 3,500 hryvnias (about 90 euros) and asked the authorities to provide her with cheap food. “This is how we live in the 21st century,” she says.

Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Profimedia Images

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