Civilians flee intense fighting in contested eastern Ukraine

By DAVID KEYTON and YURAS KARMANAU
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Civilians are fleeing eastern Ukraine where Russian and Ukrainian forces are engaged in a grinding war off attrition. Women, children and elderly residents departed Friday on a special evacuation train. Svitlana Kaplun left with her family after shelling reached their neighborhood. She told The Associated Press that her kids were “worried all the time” and “afraid to sleep at night.” Russia’s military bungled an attempt to overrun Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv in the early days of the war. It has since shifted its focus to Ukraine’s eastern region of coal mines and factories known as the Donbas. The area borders Russia and has been partly controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.