On the front line facing Putin's 'zombie army'

Hell surrounds me. Plumes of thick smoke curl into the sky. Buildings are shattered and smashed; the wreckage of destroyed vehicles litters the streets, which are deserted save for soldiers scurrying to and fro. Amid it all, the thunder of shelling is relentless.

Bakhmut is the bloodiest front of the war in Ukraine, which makes it about the most dangerous place on Earth right now. The fight has been raging here since November: the longest battle of the war. 

In the centre of the city, I am embedded with a Ukrainian Special Forces unit, just a few hundred metres from the Russian soldiers who are determined to kill anyone who stands in their way.

But many of these Russians are no ordinary soldiers. Here, at the centre of the Russian offensive, are mercenaries from the notorious private military company the Wagner Group. 

These contracted killers are supplied by a Russian oligarch called Yevgeny Prigozhin, a shaven-headed thug who served nine years in prison for robbery and fraud before making a fortune in catering.a

David Patrikarakos (Project Lead, Unregulated Cyberspace) for The Daily Mail.