In a neighbourhood of Bakhmut still holding out from the relentless Russian advance, a group of Ukrainian soldiers scramble to rush a comrade bleeding out of his back to their underground shelter, where paramedics hook the ever-growing number of wounded up to intravenous drips, poring over their injuries in the basement gloom.
In rare images filmed inside the eastern city which has become the site of the longest and bloodiest stand-off of Russia’s invasion, journalists were able to follow Ukraine’s soldiers defending Bakhmut’s streets, dodging artillery fire and scrambling through the rubble left by heavy shelling as they go.
