For months the city of Bakhmut has been the epicentre of the war in Ukraine. Almost all of the city’s 70,000 residents have fled. Russia is conducting an onslaught on the city in an attempt to capture it but so far its Ukrainian defenders have held firm.Bakhmut is strategically important and its fall would advance Russia’s hopes of capturing Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, key cities in Ukraine’s Donbass region.