Tea-breaks and terror: scenes from Ukraine’s last-ditch stand in Bakhmut

A photographer reads the mood in the Ukrainian trenches

By Emilien Urbano

Their faces have changed. For nearly a year I have been photographing the Azov regiment, whose soldiers are among those currently fighting to hold the city of Bakhmut. The unit grew out of a volunteer militia that was established when Russia invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014, though it’s been reconstituted since then and brought under the control of the Ministry of Defence.

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