“We were hungry, the child was crying when the Grad (multiple rocket launcher) shells were striking near the house. We were thinking, this is it, the end. It can’t be described… I can’t put it into words,” she tearfully told Reuters.

Emergency services were seen on the streets collecting the bodies of those who did not survive the weeks of fighting…

“It was a massacre. It was the scariest thing when the shells were flying overhead. Shells, rounds and all such, you couldn’t survive it. And yet we did,” said Vitaliy Kudasov, 71.

“A shell exploded eight metres away… I didn’t manage to get to the basement in time, I felt the heat on my face. But whatever, thank God it will all be OK,” he added.