Shells and rockets were also slamming into the industrial city of Severodonetsk, the easternmost city held by Ukrainian forces.
“We have nowhere to go, it’s been like this for days,” 38-year-old Volodymyr told AFP standing opposite a burning building in the city.
More than 11 million people have been displaced since Russia invaded on Feb 24, aiming to seize the capital.
With that goal thwarted, it is instead trying to create a land link between occupied Crimea and Moscow-backed separatist statelets in Donbas.
Ukrainian forces are also regrouping for the offensive, including on a two-lane highway through the rolling eastern plains connecting Kharkiv and Donetsk.
Trench positions were being dug, and the road was littered with anti-tank obstacles.
“We’re waiting for them!” said a lieutenant tasked with reinforcing the positions, giving a thumbs up.
‘BRUTALITY AND INHUMANITY’
The evacuation calls are being fuelled by fears of fresh atrocities, after chilling discoveries in areas from which Moscow’s troops have withdrawn.
US President Joe Biden said “major war crimes” were being committed in Ukraine, where images have emerged in recent days of bodies with their hands bound or in shallow graves.
“Civilians executed in cold blood, bodies dumped into mass graves, the sense of brutality and inhumanity left for all the world to see, unapologetically,” Biden said.
In one of the worst affected towns, Bucha, some residents were still trying to learn the fate of loved ones, while others were hoping to forget.
Tetiana Ustymenko’s son and his two friends were gunned down in the street, and she buried them in the garden of the family home.
“How can I live now?” she said.
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