A Ukrainian serviceman takes cover in a trench near Bakhmut, Ukraine, during a bombardment on Wednesday March 8.
Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
Posted 7:26 PM EST, Thu March 9, 2023
Produced by the CNN Digital Photo Team
For the first time in eight months, Russia is about to take a Ukrainian city.
Weeks of Russian attacks on Bakhmut, a town in eastern Ukraine, have forced thousands out of town and decimated its infrastructure.
Ukrainian forces continue to defend the town, with President Volodymyr Zelensky warning that Russian troops would have an “open road” to capture other key towns if they took Bakhmut. “It’s tactical for us,” Zelensky said in an interview with CNN. NATO intelligence estimates that for every Ukrainian soldier killed defending Bakhmut, Russian forces lost at least five, a military official with the alliance told CNN on Monday.
Nearly 4,000 civilians, including 38 children, were still inside the besieged city on Tuesday, according to Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine.
Here are some of the stories that made headlines over the past week, along with a few photos that caught our eye.
