Vicious onslaught, the city of Bakhmut is a key Russian target in the embattled East. War tracker footage showed Ukrainian soldiers during a clash on the outskirts of Bakhmut. Bakhmut been dubbed 'the meat grinder' due to brutal trench warfare & artillery duels. Russians must take Bakhmut to advance on key regional hubs of Sloviansk & Kramatorsk. Russians seeking to encircle Bakhmut by taking nearby villages & cutting off a key road. Russian forces been pummeling Bakhmut since summer, a city once home to 70,000 people.