Outside 84-year-old Oleksiy's cellar-turned-bomb shelter, Ukrainian firemen are braving the roads being pelted by advancing Russians. Despite successes in Kyiv and rout of the Russians around the northern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian forces are retreating across swathes of the eastern front. In the village of Sydorove, local people say they are waiting for a counter-offensive to defend their land.

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