After Bucha, these Ukrainian villagers fear they could be next.

Five tanks roared past Ihor Dubyna’s home along the road that leads to the last Ukrainian checkpoint before the front line and, on the horizon, to Russian troops.

Minutes later came an eerie whistle and a deafening explosion. The shells landed about 100 yards away. Then, two more.

“I hear sounds like this every day and night,” Mr. Dubyna said. “The earth trembles.”

Just days before, a shelling attack collapsed Mr. Dubyna’s roof. Zhenya Tkach, a neighbor repairing the roof, estimated there are only eight families left in this town near the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.

This is what daily life is like in towns and villages along the front lines near Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces are battling for control by shelling residential communities relentlessly.

Residents who have stayed say they have been without water and electricity for over a month, and are feeling increasingly suffocated by the drawn-out battle. Read more

@nytimes