Just two months ago, the cafe owned by Yelena in Kostiantynivka, an industrial city in Donetsk Oblast, was still bustling with patrons. Now, however, it stands empty, and the city is under curfew. Residents are permitted to be outside from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A month ago, a Russian glide bomb fell next to Yelena's house.

"I'm 16 years old," she noted. "What do you think — how cozy are things for me right now? The whole house is in ruins. I live like I'm in a tent. There are no windows or doors; everything is covered with plywood. There's no wallpaper, no ceiling, and there are holes in the walls."

The market isn't seeing many shoppers either.

"Prices have gone up — a lot," said Vadim. "Potatoes have gone up, onions and cabbage too — all the ingredients for borscht. Everything has doubled or tripled in price."

Do local residents feel that a ceasefire is on the way?

"There's been less bombing," Vadim acknowledged. "From both sides. That's how things are right now. I'd like for this to be over already."

"We're bombed every day — every day," Lidia said. "People are fleeing because it's impossible to live here. People die here."

The city, once home to tens of thousands of people now has fewer than 5,000 residents remaining. Among them is 43-year-old Estonian Jaanus Parksepp, who proudly showed off his Estonian birth certificate. Parksepp was nine years old when his Ukrainian mother brought him with her from Estonia to live in Kostiantynivka.

"Before the war, everything was fine; the stores were full of goods," Parksepp recalled. "But things are awful now. More and more stores are closing each day."

His paternal grandmother and other relatives had remained in Estonia, and when asked, he said he would gladly head to Estonia right now, but didn't know where to turn.

"Aktuaalne kaamera" gave Parksepp the number of the Estonian Embassy in Kyiv before heading out to the city being turned into ruins.

The building where Lyubov lived was hit two weeks ago. Lyubov went to check out what was left of her apartment.

"I came to get my clothes, but I can't get the door open," she said. "The house is flooded and the door has swollen shut. I'd just like to get something out of there."

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