The town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region is forced to survive under constant shelling and attempted assault by Russian forces, but few imagine the real scale of the disaster. Maxar published a satellite photo that clearly shows the town being razed to the ground.

Bakhmut itself, which under Soviet rule and until 2016 was called Artemivsk after a Soviet party official, is of strategic importance. It is located on the E40 highway about halfway from Kharkiv to Rostov-on-Don. Bakhmut holds back the advance of the Russian army further west towards a number of towns, most notably Kramatorsk, a major administrative, industrial and defence centre of the Kiev-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast. Bakhmut is about 50km from Kramatorsk, but there are many defence lines in between, so some experts say the loss of Bakhmut would not be critical for other areas.

Today there are very few people left in Bakhmut, they have to survive without the amenities of civilisation, in basements, under constant shelling.