Skip to main content
NEU job vacancy
The killing fields of Bakhmut — what would Vasily Grossman say?
The men killed in war die with the stamp of confusion and terror on their faces, while those who kill them do so terrified for their own lives, writes JOHN WIGHT
Military medics give first aid to wounded soldiers on the road near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, May 11, 2023

AS ONLY he could, famed Soviet war correspondent Vasily Grossman, himself a son of Ukraine, evoked the brutal and bloody reality of war in his tireless work while following the fortunes of the Red Army on the Eastern Front during WWII.

Grossman: “The head of the driver of a heavy tank had been torn off by a shell, and the tank came back driving itself because the dead driver was pressing the accelerator. The tank drove through the forest breaking trees and reached our village. The headless driver was still sitting in it.”

It is clear from the reporting by both pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian sources that the most brutal fighting of the conflict in Ukraine thus far in has been taking place around the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk these past few months. The resulting heavy casualties suffered by both sides have been acknowledged by Moscow and Kiev.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
President Donald Trump meet with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at the White House, August 18, 2025, in Washington
Features / 22 August 2025
22 August 2025

Washington plays innocent bystander while pouring weapons and intelligence into Ukraine, just as it enables the Gaza genocide — but every US escalation leaves Ukraine weaker than the neutrality deal rejected in 2022, argue MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICOLAS JS DAVIES

THE OTHER UKRAINE: The Saur-Mogila Soviet memorial near the city of Snizhne in Donetsk Oblast has been massively expanded in Soviet style, while in other parts of the country, Soviet statues were torn down
War / 13 May 2025
13 May 2025

As Britain marks 80 years since defeating fascism, it finds itself in a proxy war against Russia over Ukraine — DANIEL POWELL examines Churchill’s secret plan to attack our Soviet allies in 1945 and traces how Nato expansion, a Western-backed coup and neo-nazi activism contributed to todays' devastating conflict

Sister of Mercy, painted by Marat Samsonov in 1954
Features / 9 May 2025
9 May 2025

As Moscow celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Nazi defeat without Western allies in attendance, the EU even sanctions nations choosing to attend, revealing how completely the USSR's sacrifice of 27 million lives has been erased, argues KATE CLARK