Inside the battle for Bakhmut where Putin’s troops are meeting tanks, guns and their bloody defeat

THE Sun has joined Ukraine’s troops in captured Russian positions after a fast tank assault in the “Meat Grinder” battle for Bakhmut.

A dead Russian soldier lay rotting in a World War One-style hellscape of craters, barbed wire and battlefield trenches.

Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade launched the surprise attack last week, using tanks and armoured infantry to smash through Putin’s front lines.

They advanced 1,000 yards across farmland south of bomb-blitzed Bakhmut in the first major gains for months.

Footage showed assault squads clearing bunkers with hand grenades as a tank charged into a wood, sending Russian soldiers fleeing.

Russia continues to blast its way forward in the city, block by blood-soaked block.

But a three-pronged assault in nearby countryside spread panic through Russian lines.

The UK said Russian soldiers retreated in “bad order” — a big boost for Ukraine’s morale.

Troops from Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade attacked Russia’s southern flank — hitting one arm of a pincer movement that Moscow hoped would encircle the city.

Kyiv’s commander of land forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said the attack “stalled the entire Russian army”.

He said the sudden advances had left Moscow guessing if this was Ukraine’s long-awaited spring offensive.

He added: “The Russians do not know where the offensive is or what is happening near Bakhmut.”

The Sun met the 3rd Assault troops in a secret underground bunker — with a roof at least three tree trunks thick — from where they monitor feeds from frontline drones as artillery screamed overhead.

Their drones showed the scene of last week’s battle, where fields had been transformed to moonscapes of craters by non-stop rocket and artillery shell bombardments.

Second Lt Roman, 38, a radio unit commander, said the attack caught the Russians off guard.

He added: “War is the best teacher. If it’s not a surprise, we are doing it wrong.”

From there, we leapt in an armoured Humvee and raced over miles of bumpy farm tracks before trekking on foot.

The first position we reached was an old Ukrainian frontline trench, its empty gun positions strewn with bullet casings.

Our guide, Lt Dima, said at one point the closest Russians had been just 50 metres away from his trench.

The stench of death hung heavy over the firing ports.

A few yards beyond the sandbags, flies buzzed over a Russian corpse.

He had been cut down before the Ukrainian attack in a doomed attempt to storm their lines.

We emerged from the trench and entered the tree line, where the overrun Russian positions had been.

Scraps of uniform and sleeping bags lay strewn amid torn down trees and the wreckage of blown up bunkers. Rocket propelled grenade rounds lay propped up next to a tree. Nearby, was a soldier’s tin hat.

The Russian troops who had fought and died here were from the 72nd Motor Rifle Brigade.

Britain said they had suffered “poor morale and limited combat effectiveness”.

The MoD added: “It’s deployment to such a demanding and operationally important sector highlights Russia’s severe shortage of credible combat units.”

We clambered over broken trees on paths part made by a tank as it smashed its way through the wood last week.

Russian army 'fleeing'

Lt Dima warned us not to stray, or risk triggering landmines.

Footage from his brigade showed Russian soldiers breaking cover and running for their lives across a field.

The boss of the Wagner Group mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has blasted Russian troops for “pissing away” his hard won gains.

He claimed he lost 500 men to capture the ground that they abandoned. He fumed: “Our army is fleeing.”

The Sun reached the new front lines just three days after Ukraine dug fresh trenches.

The soldiers said they were now roughly 200 yards from the closest Russians. Artem, one of the soldiers, said: “It feels a lot like World War One.”

They let us steal a glance through the sandbagged lookout, but not to put our heads up for more than 20 seconds for fear of Russian snipers.

A deadly orchestra of artillery was howling overhead. Only rarely did they flinch.

Most of the heavy guns’ fury was still aimed squarely at downtown Bakhmut.

In the city, Sergeant Alexander, 36, who was wounded, said living and dying felt all down to chance.

He was blown off his feet by a Russian shell and spent four hours moving three city blocks under non-stop bombardments.

He said: “We lost 30 per cent of our unit in nine days.

“Every window can hide a Russian sniper or machine gun.

“The Russians have so much artillery there it feels like we are fighting naked.”

The dad of two said he rarely spent more than a few hours in one building as the moment the Russian’s spot a position, they blast it with artillery.

He added: “If the drones see your position, that’s it — no more position.”

Speaking from a hospital garden, he said: “It is all down to luck, or God. Once you have been to Bakhmut you believe in God, or something. You have to.

“Otherwise, how do you explain that you are surviving in a place where nothing should survive?"