The east Ukraine town of Debaltseve was the epicentre of fighting in the hours ahead of a ceasefire, amid non-stop bombardments, impassible roads, and rebel calls for government soldiers to surrender.
"You can carry on if you want to die," a Ukrainian soldier at a checkpoint on the road from Artemivsk to Debaltseve warned reporters on Saturday as artillery blasts echoed around.
The road between the two government-held towns some 40km apart has been almost entirely deserted since Friday. No private cars could be seen travelling on it, and only a few ambulances whizzed by at top speed.
Volunteer doctors risked their lives seeking to make it to beleaguered Debaltseve to evacuate the wounded.
Ukrainian troops are almost entirely surrounded in the town that once had a population of nearly 25,000, and is considered a strategic railway junction located mid-way between rebel capitals Donetsk and Lugansk.
Fighting has been intense there, with Kiev and the US accusing Russia of piling in arms and troops to help separatists capture the town ahead of the start of a ceasefire set to begin at midnight on Sunday.
Local officials painted a terrifying picture of the situation inside Debaltseve Saturday, though journalists were unable to reach the stricken city to verify it independently.
"The rebels are destroying the town of Debaltseve. There are non-stop artillery bombardments of residential areas and buildings. The town is in flames," Vyacheslav Abroskin, the Kiev-loyalist regional police chief said on Facebook.
Natalia Karabuta, head of the town's health service, told AFP shortly after fleeing Debaltseve that people were pinned down in buildings by bombardments.
"The shelling doesn't stop, the longest pause is for thirty minutes," she said.
"People are hiding from the mortar fire in residential areas in the basements of the hospitals. The windows have been blown out but the building is still whole."
"There are only a few doctors and nurses left in the town but they can only provide the most rudimentary first aid."
Close to the frontline near Debaltseve, AFP journalists saw six multiple rocket launcher systems, several tanks and a dozen 152 mm cannons heading towards the rebels' frontline.
Regular artillery bombardments could be heard by journalists from the town of Gorlivka, some 20km away.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that some 6000 to 8000 Ukrainian troops were trapped in the town, adding he hoped they would lay down their arms to avoid a bloodbath.
Kiev, however, rejects claims that its forces are surrounded, while rebels contend they preventing government troops from leaving.
"We are going to block all attempts by the Ukrainian soldiers to flee the encirclement. I have given the order," said Alexander Zakharchenko, the self-proclaimed leader of pro-Russian separatists.
Among the military men fighting it out on the ground there was little faith that the looming truce would end the violence.
"We don't believe in the ceasefire," a Ukrainian soldier told AFP.
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