Ukrainian soldiers have painted a bleak picture of their on-going defence of Bakhmut, the small eastern city that has become the target of Europe’s bloodiest infantry battle since the Second World War.

Kyiv’s soldiers have said they knew they were being sent to their deaths when they were given the orders to go to the city, and admitted they are ‘just getting killed’.

Moscow has launched a massive winter offensive involving hundreds of thousands of freshly called-up reservists and convicts recruited from jail as mercenaries, who form human wave attacks in an attempt to overwhelm Bakhmut’s defenders.

It is trying to capture Bakhmut to secure President Vladimir Putin’s first substantial victory in more than half a year, having invaded the country in February 2022.

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