DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) – It has been weeks since Donetsk last had a traffic jam.
The regular rumble on the edge of this besieged city in eastern Ukraine is a constant reminder of the government’s effort to shell armed pro-Russian separatists out of their stronghold. Rebels give as good as they get, blindly lobbing shells back at an unseen foe.
As fighting edges ever closer to the center, hundreds of thousands have fled a city once home to 1 million people. The bustle of a major industrial center has given way to the stillness of fear.
College teacher Nataliya Badibina said she would have left to stay with relatives in Russia were it not for her mother and father.
“My parents are ill. They live nearby and I am not going to leave them,” said Badibina, whose apartment block in Donetsk’s western Petrovsky district had its windows blown out by shrapnel from a Grad rocket that landed in her courtyard.