Civilians flee fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine

A Ukrainian soldier on the front line in Sievierodonetsk, the Luhansk region, Ukraine (Oleksandr Ratushniak/PA)

Civilians have fled intense fighting in eastern Ukraine as Russian and Ukrainian forces engage in a grinding battle of attrition for key cities in the country’s industrial heartland.

Mostly women, children and elderly residents left on a special evacuation train that departed from the city of Pokrovsk and headed west.