Nearly eight months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, its forces are struggling while Ukraine has advanced and regained its territory in the east and south. In the eastern Donbass region, the city of Bakhmut remains a Russian target, and its troops are making progress.
The city reverberates with the sound of continuous shelling day and night. This has been going on for weeks.
Most of Bakhmut's 70,000 citizens have already fled. Most of those who survive are elderly. They are living without running water or electricity.
A small queue had formed for the latest evacuation, with volunteers still bravely driving a minibus in and out of the city.
Olenna, who is almost 70 years old, was among those waiting to leave.
"The people are tired," she said, as yet another barrage rocked the city. Everyone reacts differently, she said -- some reach for a cigarette, or some to chew, while others just sit and cry.
Life had become very difficult, she said, cooking over an open fire and bringing buckets of water.
"I curse the one who started this war. I curse him 100 times," she said.
Olenna says that the survivors in Bakhmut are tired
As she boarded the bus she held her hands in gratitude for finally leaving.
In Bakhmut, Russia is doing its best to change the narrative of this war. It's one of the few places it's not in a retreat. Its progress here has been slow and costly, but Russian forces are gaining ground.
There may once have been an argument for Russia's focus on the capture of Bakhmut. By early summer it had taken the nearby cities of Severodnetsk and Lisichansk.
Bakhmut was next, with the hope that the Russian army would then march towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
But before that Ukraine launched a surprise counter-offensive in the east and south. The Russian army has been pushed further north. The cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are no longer within the range of Russian artillery, as they were in July.
Russia has been forced to switch from a massive offensive to a defensive army.
Colonel Serhi Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine's Eastern Command, still doubts that the Russians have the numbers or the equipment to take down Bakhmut - which he says is now the concentration of their military efforts. At the same time, he said, Russia is trying to build new defenses in the north around the cities of Svatov and Kremena – where even major supply lines are now threatened by Ukraine.
Ukraine says Russia is sending decades-old equipment to the front lines
Col Chervati told me that a lot now depends on how much additional forces Russia can mobilize and the quality of those reserves. "So far we are seeing that they are of poor quality and they do not have enough weapons."
I met the colonel in a jumble of destroyed Russian tanks and armored vehicles near the recently liberated city of Lyman. This is the image of the Russian military Ukraine wants to show the world – it is still restricting access to journalists who want to go to the front lines.
Colonel Chervati claimed that Russia had recently been sending older T62 tanks made in the 1960s to the front lines because much of its modern armor had been destroyed.
Last month President Putin announced that he was calling on 300,000 troops to go to war, and Russia now says the target will be met within two weeks.
But efforts to capture Bahkamat have been led by private military contractor Wagner Group, British military intelligence believes. The mercenary group has been fighting in Ukraine since 2014, and last month a video of its leader being held in a Russian prison surfaced.
“It is either private military companies and prisoners, or your children - decide for yourself,” he told the Russians.
These destroyed Russian tanks are near the recently recaptured city of Lyman
It is still possible that the Russian army will be able to capture Bakhmut. But then what?
"When we retreated from Lysychansk we eliminated the enemy," said Colonel Cherevaty.
He hopes that Bakhmut can do the same. As for the increase in the speed of Russian long-range missile attacks, he says the only effect for Ukraine would be more impetus: "We beat them on the battlefield, and the only advantage they have is missiles."
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