In the war-torn eastern Ukrainian town of Toretsk, time is running out for those wanting to escape. Russian forces are advancing steadily, bombarding the town night and day with rockets, artillery fire, and air attacks, contributing to a broader push in the Donetsk region that Ukraine has struggled to halt. The town is in ruins: buildings reduced to rubble, burned-out apartment blocks uninhabitable, a church tower toppled, and plumes of smoke rising from incoming shells.

In a residential courtyard, a group of mostly elderly residents gathers to hear Ivan, a police officer in camouflage fatigues, urging them to evacuate with his team. Hundreds of officers like him, along with Ukrainian volunteers, are trying to evacuate people from towns and villages along the frontline before they are completely destroyed and overtaken by Russian forces. "Are you all staying?" he asks urgently. "Can you not see how the situation is changing? If you think you will sit it out - this is not going to happen."

Some residents have accepted his offer, while others have declined. Many who stay do so because they fear an uncertain future in safer parts of Ukraine or refuse to leave elderly relatives and friends behind. "It is just me that is left, everyone else is buried," says Valentyna, a former school headmistress, in tears. "Planes are flying in every night and attacking, especially the last two days," adds the 75-year-old.

A woman beside her exclaims, "God has given us earth and sky, and they (the Russians) trampled all over it, covered it in blood. It is all covered in blood. And the young boys..." According to Tetyana Nikonova, a local military administration representative, about 5,000 people remain in Toretsk, a sharp decline from an estimated population of 35,000 a decade ago. "Many people refuse to leave. We talk to them, the boys try to convince them, but they do not want to go," she says. "We offer them all that we can—accommodation, transport, all for free—but people hide in basements."

Oleksandr plans to evacuate but first releases his chickens from their coop and frees his dog and goats. Valentyna Natyazhko, 88, who fled Toretsk earlier, returns briefly to retrieve her refrigerator for her new home in nearby Kostiantynivka. "All the food got spoiled there; I had to throw away sausage, mayonnaise, butter," she says. "I came to take this fridge. Fridges are expensive; where will I get money to buy one?"

Sergiy and Iryna, a couple sitting outside their apartment, debate whether to leave. Police officers instruct them to be at the same place the next morning if they decide to go. "I worry we will not be able to come back, no one will let us back here," says Sergiy, 65. "But we will leave, Sergiy Yuriyevych, won't we?" asks Iryna tearfully, touching his hand. "We'll leave," he sighs. "We'll leave."