In driving snow and frigid temperatures, one Ukrainian fighter on a tank leaving the besieged town of Debaltseve described it as “a one-way street to the grave.”
The surrounding roads are littered with the wreckage of what were once Ukrainian military positions, an obliterated checkpoint, the remains of people in an armed personnel carrier hit by an explosion.
Inside the once bustling town, the icy, devastated, streets are empty. The few civilians too old or sick to flee cower indoors desperately hoping not to be killed by the near-constant shelling.
This small transport hub in eastern Ukraine has become a focus for bitter violence between Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatists following a ceasefire agreement four days ago that has faltered.
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Many have been trying to find shelter from the violence underground, living in basements.
A local woman, Antonina, bundled against the cold in a red coat and woolen headscarf, wept as she described how her husband Yevgeny was killed in November about a week before he turned 65.
“He said, ‘Run! Get down in the basement.’ But he stayed up here and the shell hit. He lived for a moment, but he died just here. And it tore up everything. How can we live?”
Jessica King in Atlanta contributed to this report.
