'It brings back a sense of belonging': Bakhmut was destroyed by Russia - but the town lives on through its newspaper

The Observer Ukraine
‘It brings back a sense of belonging’: Bakhmut was destroyed by Russia – but the town lives on through its newspaper

Vpered, saved from destruction by intrepid editor Svitlana Ovcharenko, still gives hope and voice to a community in Ukraine

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/07/bakhmut-ukraine-was-destroyed-by-russia-but-the-town-lives-on-through-its-newspaper-vpered?CMP=share_btn_url






Emma Graham-Harrison and Artem Mazhulin in Odesa Sat 7 Dec 2024 10.00 EST

Before Bakhmut became famous internationally as a battleground, it was known inside Ukraine for salt, sparkling wine fermented in an old alabaster mine and roses that lined its streets. That physical town is gone now, its buildings in ruins, its streets a no man’s land of makeshift cemeteries laced with mines. Russian troops destroyed it as they claimed it, inch by inch, in a slow campaign between the summers of 2022 and 2023.

Ukrainian resistance turned this Donbas town into a byword for courage. The last few bottles rescued from the winery sell online for more than French vintages, their prices charged by nostalgia and patriotism.

That reputation is a source of pride but little practical help to its 80,000 residents who scattered west to other cities and town as the fighting raged. For more than a year, in their new homes, they have been grappling with a question facing increasing numbers of Ukrainians. What happens to a community that may never be able to go home?

As Donald Trump prepares to move into the White House, promising to end the war in “24 hours”, Ukrainian dreams of recovering and rebuilding areas occupied by Russia are fading. Any deal is expected to include conceding territory.

For many Bakhmutians now living in exile, the answer is not – or not only – “move on”. A small provincial town on the edges of the steppe, freezing in winter and boiling in summer, it nonetheless inspires passionate loyalty.

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They still gather at Bakhmut “hubs” across the country, painted in town colours and draped with its flag, where local government officials dispense aid and advice in cramped rooms, and read the century-old paper Vpered, or Ahead.

“Bakhmut is not buildings or bricks, Bakhmut is people. Even though the town ceased to exist in physical form, it lives on in the community, in our paper,” said Vpered ­editor Svitlana Ovcharenko.

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A woman crosses a destroyed bridge in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on 6 January 2023. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images



https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/may/18/stark-before-and-after-images-reveal-the-obliteration-of-bakhmut
Stark before-and-after images reveal the obliteration of Bakhmut
This article is more than 1 year old
A composite aerial image showing Bakhmut in May 2022 and the destruction in May 2023. Photograph: Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies