'Help us': Last few residents hold on in Donbas ghost town

n the eastern Ukrainian village of Bohorodychne -- which means 'where God was born' -- the golden domes of the church have fallen down.

The church was blown up in one of the many shellings the village has seen as it was taken and retaken several times by Russian and Ukrainian troops fighting for the Donbas.

There has been fighting in the vast industrial area of Donbas ever since 2014 when Russia-backed separatists took over part of the area© Juan BARRETO

Ukrainian soldiers said Russians fled the village a few days earlier, in the face of their army's sweeping counter-offensive.

They left a ghost town behind.

Nina Gonchar and her son Mykola, standing in front of their shattered house, appear to be the last two residents still left in the village.

Some of their family members were murdered, they told AFP.

"The Russians came, they killed my brother and my sister-in-law," says 58-year-old Mykola. 

Russian soldiers wanted to use his brother's home as a base, but after he refused, they gunned the house down, killing the couple at the same time. 

Mykola says he wrapped the bodies in blankets and buried them himself.

Russia said it was carrying out 'massive strikes' across the Ukrainian front line© Juan BARRETO

-' Barely survived' -

He and his frail 92-year-old mother "barely survived" the occupation thanks to food jars, a few poultry, and some vegetables in the garden.

"How can I describe it with words? It was difficult, I was afraid," Mykola says. 

His mother, traumatized by the fighting, still goes back into hiding in the shelter her son dug in their garden, even though the area is back in the hands of Ukraine again.