Taking aid into Bakhmut, January 2023

The team in helmets and vests at the aid van in Bakhmut

Our trips to Bakhmut · Part 2 of 2

In January 2023, shortly before Bakhmut fell, Alexandru Vlad and a team from Romania and Ukraine took much-needed aid into the city.

Bakhmut at a glance

~70,000

people lived there before the war

~5,900

civilians still there in early February 2023

200+

children among them

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Loading aid into the van before the trip to Bakhmut

We packed the van with aid packages, sleeping bags and other supplies for the people still living in Bakhmut.

The van loaded with aid for Bakhmut
Aid packages ready to be loaded for Bakhmut
Sleeping bags packed for the trip to Bakhmut
The team praying together

In Bakhmut

On the way in we passed military vehicles and checkpoints. All around us we could hear explosions and the fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

A military vehicle on the road towards Bakhmut
A checkpoint of logs and sandbags on a street in Bakhmut
Armoured vehicles among the trees between apartment blocks in Bakhmut
The team talking with people in Bakhmut
Handing out aid to residents of Bakhmut

We handed out the aid to the people who were still in the city. We also tried to convince some of them to come with us and evacuate.

Members of the team with a Ukrainian soldier
Alexandru at the fighter jet monument in Bakhmut
A Ukrainian flag with handwritten messages flying in Bakhmut

The battle for Bakhmut

Before the war, Bakhmut was home to about 70,000 people. Russian troops first tried to take the city in August 2022 and were pushed back, but the fighting returned at full force later that year (PBS NewsHour / AP). Bakhmut had struggled to keep water flowing since March 2022, when shelling knocked out a canal, and the supply was cut completely in October. Residents replaced gas and electricity with wood and coal, and volunteers brought in all the drinking water (Kyiv Post / AFP). In early February 2023, Ukrainian police estimated that around 5,900 civilians were still in the city, including over 200 children. In mid-January, the Wagner Group captured the nearby salt-mining town of Soledar (The Kyiv Independent).

On 20 May 2023, after more than eight months of fighting in and around the city, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that Bakhmut was under full Russian control. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister called the situation critical, and its eastern command said Ukrainian units were still fighting in the city. AP described it as the longest and most grinding battle of the war (PBS NewsHour / AP).

The people we met in January were living through the final months of the city as they had known it.

We are grateful to the whole team from Romania and Ukraine who made this trip possible.

Our trips to Bakhmut

December 2022

Christmas in Chasiv Yar and Bakhmut

Food for families and gifts for children living in basements.

Read the story →

January 2023

Aid for Bakhmut

Aid for the people still in the city, months before it fell.

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