Inside world’s most dangerous paper round as Ukrainians run deadly gauntlet to deliver news to wasteland Bakhmut front

FOR the brave residents trapped within Ukraine’s bloodiest battlefield on its eastern frontline, one newspaper round has become a lifeline. In battered and besieged Bakhmut, 4000 civilians live under the constant threat of death and Vpered newspaper has become their only connection to reality. NUJUVpered is now being delivered right onto the frontline in Bakhmut and also to other former residents who have escaped to other cities[/caption] Sergey PanashchukUntil November, Bakhmut residents had been cut off from reality outside the city without the paper[/caption] NUJUResidents of war-ravaged Bakhmut rely on the vital information the newspaper provides[/caption] In peacetime, the relatively minor Ukrainian city was home to more than 70,000 people. Now, only a few thousand remain including children, who live in their half-destroyed home reliant on a determined local press team to keep them up to speed with life outside their encircled city. There is no internet, mobile or radio connection in the town or its surroundings – all the communications have been shattered by almost eight months of gruelling trench-style warfare. Svitlana Ovcharenko, now editor-in-chief, has dedicated 30 years of her life to the Vpered newspaper.  With a heavy heart, she was forced to leave her hometown in March, 2022 and move to the port city of Odesa.  Soon, Bakhmut became the focus of the fiercest fighting in the Donetsk region as Ukraine held their frontline against a Russian onslaught backed by Wagner mercenaries. “I watched my house burning down to the ground on the video from the Internet,” Svitlana told SAVEUAMedia. “The newspaper was not published for eight months. All this time, people remained in Bakhmut. “They hid in basements scared, did not have the Internet or any other connection with the outside world, considered themselves useless, abandoned, and refused to evacuate. “It was necessary to tell them that they were not left to the mercy of fate, that the whole world knows about them, worries about them, and provides assistance.” Svitland knew that the newspaper had to get back up and running – the people needed printed information they could trust. “No amount of persuasion could convince them to leave the basement and leave the zone of active hostilities.  “Even the photographs of the destroyed buildings in Bakhmut, which the volunteers showed them when they brought food to the basements, could not convince them”, she said. The last issue was printed the day Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but the newspaper wasn’t even able to be distributed the newspaper because of the constant shelling. The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine allocated funds top the cause and Svitlana was able to relaunch the newspaper. The first issue of the restored Vpered newspaper came out on November 4 last year. Four days later, it was delivered to Bakhmut and finally reached the hands of those sheltering in basements. “Volunteers said that people cried when they picked up a newspaper. And one woman said: ‘It smells like home.’ “The newspaper reminded her of times of peace, when the postman brought a fresh issue every week,” Svitlana said. In these circumstances of informational deficit, the newspaper provided a life line for those trapped in the warzone of Bakhmut – provided them with life-saving updates. “In each issue of the newspaper, we wrote to which cities the evacuation from Bakhmut is taking place. “Who is conducting it, where to go to get humanitarian and financial assistance, where you can take shelter and hot food, where to go to get medical assistance,” said Svitlana. The newspaper is also being circulated in other cities where displaced people from Bakhmut are living. “I didn’t cry much before the war,” said Svitlana. “Now I do. I cry when I watch a video from Bakhmut on social networks. I cry for the young guys who give their lives there.  “The Bakhmut land is washed with their blood. This is the most horrifying loss, not the destroyed houses. “We must be strong and support each other.” APAn aerial view of the ongoing Battle for Bakhmut that has raged for almost 8 months[/caption] AFPRussia and Ukraine have sustained some of their highest casualties in the small city of Bakhmut[/caption] NUJUThe press team behind the newspaper, including Svitlana (pictured centre)[/caption] Sergey PanashchukAs Bakhmut’s population residents went underground to escape the constant shelling – they were cut off from everything outside[/caption] NUJUVpered returned to print in November 2022 to the joy of those who remain in the city[/caption]