In Photos: Around Ukraine’s Avdiivka, Civilians Flee, and Soldiers Fight as War Gets Closer

Paraskevia, 73, lives just 3 kilometers from the front lines. Shelling is constant, and she says she’s scared. Despite all the danger, she is staying in her home in Ocheretyno, March 4, 2024.

Soldiers wait for orders to fire mortars in an artillery position on the front lines of the Kreminna forest, March 7, 2024.

An armored carrier brings soldiers who have spent the last days fighting in the trenches of the Kreminna forest, an active front line in the Donbas region, March 7, 2024.

A soldier walks back to his bunker after having the order to fire with his artillery piece canceled by his superiors, in Chasiv Yar, March 5, 2024. With a shortage of ammunition, Ukrainian soldiers are firing 10 times less than a year ago.

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire a 122mm cannon against Russian troops in Chasiv Yar, an important town west of Bakhmut, March 5, 2024.

Combat medics train in new tactics for evacuating injured soldiers on the battlefield, in Khurakhove, March 1, 2024. In the last few months, kamikaze drones have been targeting evacuations of injured soldiers more frequently.

A soldier prepares to go to the front line in Chasiv Yar, where Russians are trying to breach Ukrainian defensive lines and seize this strategically important small town west of Bakhmut, in Kostyantynivka, March 8, 2024.

A semi-destroyed car is abandoned in one of the many empty streets of Kostyantynivka, a strategic city in the heart of Donbas that has been relentlessly targeted by Russian forces, on March 2, 2024.

A Ukrainian drone squad commander observes his different teams working on the front lines of Donbas. The use of kamikaze drones has become very common in this war, both by Russians and Ukrainians, in Lyman, March 3, 2024.

A soldier inspects a crater created by a 500kg bomb dropped by a Russian plane in the town of Ocheretyno, near Avdiivka, March 4, 2024.

A soldier takes guard in an artillery position near Kupiansk, a city that was occupied by Russian forces and retaken by Ukrainians by the end of 2022, March 6, 2024.

Helena Kasmina, 53, takes cover in her cellar during Russian bombardment in her village, in Netailove, March 8, 2024. Helena, like many here, has decided it is time to leave for a safer place.