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A wood stove covered in paint and smoke was the only source of heat in the abandoned house, where Ukrainian artillery gun crews were sent to rest.
Weary members of the tight-knit group usually drag old Soviet-style D-30 howitzers around the ruins of Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city that President Volodomyr Zelenskyy has described as the country’s “fortress”.
The city – and its gun crews – have endured months of fierce and relentless fighting that has turned this once-provincial town of 73,000, nestled in the rugged folds and cuts of the coal-rich Donbas, into a sprawling graveyard.
The gun crew’s billet – hidden behind a high wall, with a gate and protected by a network of branches of trees with broken and dried fruit – was far enough from the fighting for the troops to relax, but close enough for the artillery to bother. to remind him of what he left behind.
As the nearby Russian army launched a slow attack, the Ukrainian slept with his rifle and body armor next to his bed.
CBC News was given access to an artillery unit of Ukraine’s National Guard, whose members gave a first-hand account of how the Russian Army is changing tactics and, in some cases, becoming more deadly. They provide a glimpse into the techniques that allow the Ukrainian military to continue.
Apart from intelligence and fighting skills (and the Russian military can’t cross small rivers), the Ukrainians have benefited, one soldier said, from their ability to quickly treat casualties – battlefield first aid skills taught by Canadians through Operations. Unifier training mission.
For those who are still hunting down in the embattled region, and those who have fled to safety in nearby Ukrainian cities, why and how is not important because they grapple with the bigger question of how to survive and when – or even if – they are going to go. front.
It could be a long time.
Most observers agree that Moscow’s long-anticipated offensive to claim all of Donetsk and Luhansk is alive, with territorial gains so far of a kilometer or two.
According to the assessment of the British Ministry of Defense, Russia is paying a huge price in blood for the region: Russia is now losing soldiers at a higher rate than at the start of the full-scale invasion almost a year ago. The Ukrainian General Staff estimated Russian losses at more than 800 deaths per day, a figure that could not be independently verified.
The Canadian-trained career soldier (CBC News is only using his first name, Volodymyr, under Ukrainian military identity restrictions) said he and his comrades have been fighting in Bakhmut since October and have watched the town suffer. it has collapsed block by block.
“Behind the river, it’s like a lot of damage, it’s gray and it’s just burning,” he said.
“Some parts of the city just don’t have buildings because they’re destroyed and burned down.”
Russia, he said, has recently changed its tactics and now attacks more often in smaller groups, without the support of tanks and armored personnel carriers – perhaps because of the heavy losses it has suffered.
“They usually send a large group, like 20 people, to force our position. Now the change is complete,” said Volodymyr. For example, at night, with night vision, you can almost see their faces in front of you because now small groups, up to five people, are very quiet. [trying] to take our position.”
He said Russia also appears to be better at hiding from drones. Social media has been flooded with images and videos of Ukrainian drone strikes on unsuspecting Russian soldiers.
In an ominous sign for Ukraine, Russia is also getting better at coordinating artillery.
“He’s learning. He’s developing and, yes, it’s more scary for us, but the most important thing for us is to learn how to fight, find other ways to beat him,” said Volodymyr.
The ability of Ukrainian soldiers to hold the line has been undermined by their war medicine skills – skills Volodymyr says were “taken to a whole new level” by Canadian training delivered ahead of a full invasion.
“I can definitely say that we saved many, many lives because people were injured, not dead and we knew how to help properly,” he said. “The Canadian instructors and coaches helped us and I am very grateful.”
Another soldier, Denys, agrees. He said that the battle of Bakhmut had become a bloodbath for the Russians because they did not have the same skills.
“Russia is sending its soldiers to die and the battle of Bakhmut will not be in school books,” Denys said. “There is nothing for him to brag about… this is just madness on the Russian side.”
There are no reliable estimates of Russian or Ukrainian casualties. The Ukrainian General Staff estimates that since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022, approximately 139,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded. It only admits up to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed.
The Norwegian army, however, estimated last month that Ukrainian casualties were much higher – possibly as many as 100,000 killed or wounded.
Beyond life-saving battlefield skills, training by Canada and other western allies has the benefit of giving Ukrainians confidence, according to a former civilian adviser to Ukraine’s special forces commander.
“Training has more than one outcome,” Denys Podanchuk told CBC News last week, ahead of a visit with the gun crew. “It’s not just new knowledge, it’s not just new possibilities. It adds something to your motivation. It makes you stronger. Of course, all this training is very, very useful.”
Denys, the commander of the gun crew, said his confidence and his men in training, in the ability to take care of each other, has been kept in Bakhmut since October.
“These moments [we] is in every combat task,” said Denys. “How to say? There were times, for example, when enemy artillery began to work on us. Everyone lives at that time. Is this a good time? I think this is a great moment. It will be remembered for the rest of my life.”
Most of Bakhmut’s civilians have fled. Some estimates suggest that less than one percent of the city’s pre-war population of 73,000 remains in ruins.
Hundreds of kilometers away, across the wide and calm Dnieper River, Viktoria Kopotko lives in a shelter in Dnipro. She fled Bakhmut with her daughter, Yuilia, last September as fighting intensified.
Daily life became impossible “without gas heating, additional water and electricity,” he said.
“Life became like that only after the war started,” he said, “but before we had a job, a salary, and my son studied. Everything was necessary.
With the war entering its second year, they focus on surviving as a displaced family. My 12-year-old daughter often asks me when I’m going home.
Viktoria Kopotko had no answer. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever make it back – or what he’ll find if he does.
When asked recently about going home, Yuilia seemed resigned.
“No, there’s nothing to do,” he said. “The city is ruined.”
During a break in the fighting in Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers gave a first-hand account of how they managed to hold the strategic city even as Russian fighters changed their tactics and sometimes became more deadly.
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