Those remaining in the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk near the front line live under constant shelling.
Most residents of Lysychansk have left, with those remaining living in desperate conditions under constant shelling
"Every day it's blood, blood, blood, blood," said Maj Kravchenko, a wry, burly figure who heads the army's medical teams in the area. Lysychansk is one of many strategic towns - set amid forests, rolling hills, and giant coal mines - now being targeted by the Kremlin as its forces try to organise a pincer movement from the east to seize the rest of the Donbas, and to encircle Ukrainian forces.
Further up the hill, outside Lysychansk's crumbling, Soviet-era hospital, now run by the military, a soldier with severe head injuries lay on a stretcher inside an ambulance. "It was mortar fire. On Easter day. My head aches. It's hard to focus," whispered Olexander Grinchak, 30. He gestured slowly towards the bed opposite, where his friend was recovering from similar injuries. The hospital has no running water, but is continuing to perform surgery.On the streets outside, many buildings bear the scars of recent Russian artillery and rocket fire. A fresh impact site left a huge hole on the road; a petrol station had been shattered by another strike.
"We have nowhere else to go. No relatives in other places. Besides, you need money to live somewhere else and we would be broke within a month," said Anastasia Leontiova, holding her four-year-old son's hand.