Since the start of a counteroffensive in June, Ukrainian forces have been advancing slowly to the north and south of Bakhmut in an attempt to surround Russian forces there in a pincer movement and eventually re-take the city. On the city's southern flank, Vitaliy Stolyarchuk, 31, heads up an infantry unit that has been fighting and advancing around the village of Klyshchyivka. "Of course it is scary, only a fool would not be afraid," says Stolyarchuk, who worked as a barman in the port city of Odesa before the war. "I believe in God and I always pray that my brothers and I come out alive from the battle. You have to keep a cool head and a 360-degree view." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES