Inside eastern Ukraine’s conflict-hit towns, the BBC’s Daniel Sandford finds homes destroyed, streets deserted and the food is running out.
When we passed through the last checkpoint held by armed men loyal to the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic, they warned us that the Ukrainian forces ahead were a bit “jumpy”.
But that did not prepare us for what we found in Makarove.
As we drove into the small town half an hour up the main road from Luhansk to the Russian border, the cars became fewer and fewer. Then it was just us.
When we reached the end of the town, we found the aftermath of what had clearly been heavy fighting.
The petrol station was destroyed, as was the “cheburyeki”- the pie stall. Other buildings had been badly damaged by mortars or shells. There were craters in the road.
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With a young face, blond hair, and blue eyes, he held an automatic rifle across his chest. He used to work in the mines but he now has the bearing and the attitudes of a hardened soldier.
“We will defend our town to the last man,” he told me. "We won’t let them advance a single metre.
"The Ukrainian army are fascists, there’s no other word for them. They are hitting us with heavy artillery, armoured personnel carriers, mortars, and shells that explode in the air.
