An elderly woman wipes her eyes as she stands in front of a damaged house in Nikishyne, south east of Debaltseve. (AFP)
Not a single building in Nikishyne escaped undamaged after months of intense bombardment, which helped shrink the village of 700 to a handful residents as fighting raged in eastern Ukraine.
But since pro-Russian rebels captured in February the strategic city of Debaltseve about 15 kilometers away, the bombardment of Nikishyne has ended and residents are returning to a moonscape of shattered buildings and the daunting task of rebuilding their lives under rebel control.
"It must have been hellish here," said Yevgeny as he stared at the only standing wall of his home, which was burnt and left pocked by artillery shell shrapnel.
"I found what is left of my refrigerator in the yard of a house two doors down," the former truck driver added. "It would be easier to get rid of everything and start over again. But there is no money and no work."
The shells started falling in September, and despite government forces abandoning the village several weeks later, the bombardment continued until mid-February.
A garrison of government troops had spent two months trying to hold the village against the rebel advance, but in the end beat a retreat a couple hundred meters up the road.
The government continued bombarding the village, which was taken over by rebels, as the battle for nearby Debaltseve raged. Since Ukraine forces retreated from the key rail hub, a shaky internationally-negotiated ceasefire has taken hold.
'Ruins are our homes'"Almost everyone ran away. Some by car, some on foot. They did what they could," 12-year-old Nikita said as he dug in the rubble, two dusty cans of tuna and a sack of sugar in hand.
While most of the village remains deserted, some families are trying hard to repair what is left of their homes and clear away the leftovers of the bombardment, like the remains of artillery shells.
The rebels also recently pulled a corpse from the ruins of one home. "We were even hit by hurricane rockets. The explosions were so strong we didn't know what was happening," said 51-year-old Svetlana, who rode out the months of bombardment in a cellar with her 80-year-old father.
"His vision is very bad. He told me he wasn't going anywhere and that he would die here," she added, as she tried to plug a yawning hole left in her home.
"People are starting, little by little, to come back." Near the local school, which served as the rebel headquarters, Valentina and Vasiliy Balakhtin found their home was reduced to rubble.
A Grad rocket is on display in the neighbour's yard, sticking out of the ground where a row of potatoes are planted.
"How are we going to live now? Who is going to help us?" asked Vasiliy Balakhtin, 75, a retired miner. "We have nowhere to go." "If we get help, we'll make it. We are ready to start over again," said Svetlana Balakhtin, who worked in a local clinic which was destroyed in the bombing.
"Even if these are just ruins, they are still our homes," she added.