Kostiantynivka, a Ukrainian city on the front lines, has been reduced to a ghost town. Once home to 67,000 residents, bombardment has left roughly 2,000 people with no power, gas, heat, or running water. U.N.-supported humanitarian group Proliska and police unit White Angels have spent months ferrying civilians out under drone fire.

More than 1,000 drones swarm the sky daily. The 28th Mechanized Brigade destroys 150 per day, but countless more circle overhead. Russian forces deliberately target evacuation routes, striking a marked humanitarian van with a fiber optic drone. One rescuer called the attack a "human safari" after an injured man died because the vehicle could not reach him.

The city blocks the route to Kramatorsk, one of Ukraine's last Donbas strongholds. A Russian breakthrough here would deal Ukraine a significant blow and ripple through global energy and defense markets. Aid groups have been forced to suspend missions as danger spiked, leaving stragglers to flee on foot or in hand carts.

Capt. Yevhen Alkhimov of the 28th Brigade described conditions as "a mix of Middle Ages siege with modern technologies." With rubble choking streets and bodies buried where they fell, the human cost of the war continues to mount while Moscow presses its offensive across the 800-mile front line.