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“There’s nothing to do at night,” Natasha complains of her village, Nikolaevka, which is on the government-controlled side of the line but within firing range of the forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Growing up, she had hoped to be a model. But she’s unemployed and has to raise her two children alone.

“There are no opportunities here,” she says. “In the night we sit quietly like mice in our houses. There’s nowhere to go.”

In the day, Natasha and other women gather in Nikolaevka’s community hall to chat. Even indoors, they’re wrapped up in coats, hand-knitted hats and scarves.

The village suffers from little heating because the fighting limits access to coal and firewood, inhabitants say, and gas lines that should provide heating are damaged by the shelling and badly driven military vehicles.