Volunteers race to evacuate elderly, ill and Ukrainians with disability from the country's east as Russian forces advance

Volunteers have been racing to evacuate as many civilians as possible. (AP: Francisco Seco)

To a threatening soundtrack of air raid sirens and booming artillery, civilians are fleeing towns and cities in eastern Ukraine as Russian forces advance.

Negotiating narrow apartment building staircases, volunteers carry those who can not walk in their arms, in stretchers or in wheelchairs to waiting minibuses, which then drive them to central staging areas and eventually to evacuation trains in other cities.