- Ukrainians fought to stay alive in Bakhmut against a much larger Russian force.
- Soldiers told Business Insider the city was so dangerous they couldn't set up proper defenses.
Soldiers in Bakhmut, the scene of Ukraine's bloodiest battle, painted a bleak picture of their time there.
Death was always close — and would rarely come from an enemy you could see.
They stayed alive by sprinting between buildings to avoid drones and air strikes, several told Business Insider.
They would stand still for hours at a time, hoping to avoid being seen.
The battle for the eastern city raged from last summer until May this year, when Ukraine's forces were finally pushed out. Fighting has continued on its outskirts.
Commanders on both sides called Bakhmut a "meat grinder," while soldiers who fought there described brutal fighting among destroyed buildings.
The positions soldiers took up were destroyed so quickly that there was no point in building anything new to hide in, a Ukrainian deputy commander told BI.
He was one of about 45 people who spoke to BI for a sweeping feature on the horrific fighting in Bakhmut.
"You don't have much time to prepare a very good position," said the commander, who asked not to be named for fear of Russian retribution.
Attacks would come as soon as Russian forces learned where you were, whether it was a house, apartment block, or trench, he said.
"When they understand where you are properly, they will destroy your position," he said. "We have a lot of casualties in this way."
A US Army veteran who fought in Bakhmut also described the difficulties of staying alive in a city with so many drones.
"In Bakhmut, you would be spotted immediately by a drone because there's hundreds of drones in the air," he said. "There's no place that's safe."
Soldiers would take up positions on the first floor or in the basements of partially destroyed buildings. When you arrive "you need to wait there to see if you've been ID'ed," said the veteran, who goes by his call sign Jackie.
Only after you were sure you'd not been spotted could you begin setting up traps or defenses, or get ready to launch a new attack, he said.
"That's how you survive."
Changing positions was also fraught with danger, Jackie said. They'd use four different routes to move between positions so they were not walking the same way every time.
"The goal of the day is just to not let the Russians know where any of those positions are," he said.
Cmdr. Vitaliy Kryukov, a loitering-munition commander for Ukraine's elite Adam Tactical Group, also told BI of the extreme danger.
"The fights were going on for every single corner," he said, "every building."
And when it came to attacking a building held by Russian forces, Jackie said the key was "to move at the right time."
"You cannot expose yourself for too long," he said. "You can't screw around on that building for too long. Because you're going to get spotted, drone and artillery is going to start coming in. It's going to be accurate."
He said that when it came to staying alive, "luck is a big factor."
The need to avoid being seen meant that Bakhmut often looked like a ghost town, despite being filled with many thousands of soldiers.
Martin Wyness, who came to Bakhmut in June and July 2022 as a medic, said medical staff kept first-aid kits on them at all times: "Even if you went in the shower, you took it with you in case the building collapsed."
The Ukrainian deputy commander said that soldiers were constantly at risk where they hid: "They just need to destroy the building and we die inside."
After months of fighting, Ukrainian forces moved out of the heavily damaged city in May, leaving Bakhmut in Russian hands.
Jackie said his men were relieved to get out of Bakhmut.
But it didn't take long, he said, until they "all agreed that we are looking forward to the day that we can go back there, retake that city, and rebuild it."