The defense of the city – once home to some 70,000 people – is all the more precarious as there is only one road under Ukrainian control that supplies the besieged position.
They call it the “Road of Life,” but burnt-out vehicles abandoned along the vital route indicate deadly battles on the horizon.
“From above, from the sky, what you see is a crater. It’s a mess,” a Ukrainian drone operator passing through Chak told AFP, describing Highway T0504.
The 25-kilometre (16-mile) road from the Ukrainian-controlled hub is covered with burnt trees, and civilian cars and military hardware careen the muddy route to bring in new fighters and evacuate the wounded.
“You can call it the road of life or the road of death,” said 22-year-old Amina, who has been serving in the army for several months, taking refuge in a basement on the outskirts of Bakhmut.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that the fall of Bakhmut would give Russian forces an “open road” to the rest of the war-torn Donetsk region, which Moscow claims is Russian land.