Bakhmout (ukrainien et russe : Бахмут), entre 1924 et 2016 Artemivsk (ukrainien : Артемівськ) ou Artiomovsk (russe : Артёмовск), est une ville de l'oblast de Donetsk, en Ukraine orientale, et le centre administratif du raïon de Bakhmout. Sa population s'élevait à 71 094 habitants au 1er janvier 2022. Elle ne serait plus que de 12 000 habitants le 10 décembre 2022 en raison de la fuite des habitants causée par les bombardements dans le cadre de l'invasion de l'Ukraine par la Russie.
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The Artemivsk massacre, also referred to as "Bakhmut's Babi Yar", was a 1942 massacre of the Jewish inhabitants of the city of Artemivsk, in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. Somewhere between 1,200 and 3,000 Jews were killed or left to die within the city's alabaster mines.
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Bakhmut is a city in eastern Ukraine. Officially the administrative center of Bakhmut urban hromada and Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, it is on the Bakhmutka River, about 90 kilometres north of Donetsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Bakhmut was designated a city of regional significance until 2020, when the designation was abolished. In January 2022, it had an estimated population of 71,094.
Bakhmut was originally founded in the 16th century as a minor border post on the southern border of the Russian state. Its population grew in the early 18th century, and it served as the capital of Slavo-Serbia, a colony in the Russian Empire established by settlers from the Balkans.
It received city status in 1783, and underwent major industrialization over the following few centuries. In 1920–1924, the city was an administrative center of the newly created Donets Governorate of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. The city was known as Artemivsk or Artemovsk between 1924 and 2016. During World War II, it was the site of the Artemivsk massacre of Soviet Jews by Nazi Germany.
During the beginning of the war in Donbas between the independent Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists, the city was the site of the battle of Artemivsk in 2014. During the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine which commenced in February 2022, Bakhmut was the site of a major battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces. The city was largely destroyed, with most of its population having fled, and what remained being placed under Russian occupation.
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The Battle of Bakhmut was a major battle between the Russian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Armed Forces for control of the city of Bakhmut, during the eastern front, a theatre of the Russo-Ukrainian war. It is regarded by some military analysts to be the bloodiest battle since World War II.
The shelling of Bakhmut began in May 2022, and Russian offensives on the distant approaches to the city began in early July. The main assault towards the city itself started after Russian forces advanced from the direction of Popasna following a Ukrainian withdrawal from that front. The main assault force consisted primarily of mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, supported by regular Russian troops and reportedly Donetsk People's Republic militia elements.
In late 2022, following Ukraine's Kharkiv and Kherson counteroffensives, the Bakhmut–Soledar front became an important focus of the war, being one of the few front lines where Russia remained on the offensive. Attacks on the city intensified in November 2022, as assaulting Russian forces were reinforced by units redeployed from the Kherson front, together with newly mobilized recruits. By this time, much of the front line had descended into positional trench warfare, with both sides suffering high casualties without any significant advances. By using repeated assaults composed of former convicts, Wagner troops were able to gradually gain ground and by February 2023, they captured territory in the north and south of Bakhmut and threatened encirclement. Ukrainian forces began slowly withdrawing deeper into the city and the battle turned into fierce urban warfare. By March 2023, Russian forces captured the eastern half of the city, up to the Bakhmutka river.
By 20 May 2023, Bakhmut had been mostly captured by Russian forces, with the Ukrainian military claiming control of a small strip of the city proper along the T0504 highway. Nonetheless, Ukraine started counterattacks on Russia's flanks, seeking to encircle the city. Around the same time on 25 May, Wagner began withdrawing from the city to be replaced by regular Russian troops, amidst heavy internal squabbles between Wagner leadership and Russian high command.
In September 2023, President Zelensky said Ukraine would continue to fight to retake Bakhmut.
Although initially a target with lesser tactical importance, Bakhmut became one of the central battles of the Russo-Ukrainian War, with it gaining significant symbolic importance for both sides, as President Zelensky declared it to be the "fortress of our morale", and due to the heavy investment of manpower and resources both sides used to control the city. The battle of Bakhmut has been described as a "meat grinder" and a "vortex" for both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries. The intensity of the battle and the high number of casualties suffered by both sides during the fight, alongside the trench and urban warfare, has drawn comparisons to the Battle of Verdun in World War I, as well as to the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II. It has been called the most prominent urban battle of the war, with it being reported as the site of "some of the fiercest urban combat in Europe since World War II".
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Yahidne is a rural settlement in eastern Ukraine, located in the center of Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast. In 2001, it had a population of 318. It is located on one side of a hill, on the other side of which is the village of Berkhivka.
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Khromove is a rural-type settlement in eastern Ukraine, located in Bakhmut urban hromada, Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast. Before 2016, it was known as Artemivske.
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Depuis avril 2023, la ville est presque entièrement détruite du fait des combats intenses qui ont lieu dans la ville.