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Before the war, Bachmut was best known in the Donetsk Oblast for the winery, one of the largest sparkling wine producers in Eastern Europe. Among other things, Artwinery produced the Crimean sparkling wine here – underground, in a gypsum mine that is up to 72 meters deep. Today tens of thousands of people have fled, the city is largely devastated and deserted. But the mine still serves an important purpose: with its kilometers of shafts and railroad tracks, it helps the Ukrainian army to still defend the city.