‘Soon there will be just death’: Russian shells flay away at hope in Ukraine’s frontline cities

Liudmyla Alyokhina, 78, recovering from shrapnel wounds in the Kurakhove hospital. Photograph: Jędrzej Nowicki/The Guardian

For the few residents remaining in Kurakhove, a city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region just seven miles from the frontlines, the worst-case scenario was all too easy to envision.

Nearby towns and cities such as Avdiivka and Bakhmut had been razed to the ground before falling, their names now synonymous with the devastating tactics employed by the Russian army in the 28-month-long war.