one billion us dollars. hello and welcome to bbc news. russian and ukrainian forces are still fighting in the streets of bakhmut which russia has been trying to capture for several months. the deputy mayor of the city has told the bbc that the 4,000 civilians still living there out of an original population of 75,000 have no gas, electricity or water. thousands of russian troops have died trying to take the eastern city. if it falls, it would be the first russian victory of note in more than six months. our diplomatic correspondent, james landale, reports from kyiv. this is bakhmut, or at least what s left of it, after some of the fiercest fighting since russia invaded ukraine. for more than six months, as the bbc has reported, ukrainian forces have held off a ferocious onslaught. but now russian commandos are growing increasingly confident, including the leader of the mercenaries known as the wagner group, which have been at the heart of the assault. translation: we ha