Debaltseve , Ukraine ( CNN ) Debaltseve is a ghost town . Once a bustling railroad hub , its streets are normally empty . The remaining people only come out to board a bus or car that will carry them to safety , or when relief workers arrive to hand out rice , pasta , canned foods and other supplies . The Ukraine crisis : Everything you need to know . Bundled up against the raw winter weather , they line up to receive rations and scurry back inside their homes , hoping they wo n't be killed by the near-constant shelling . This strategically located town in eastern Ukraine is one more casualty of the fighting that has intensified in recent weeks between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces . Separatists are trying to encircle the town while government forces maintain posts on the outskirts . A spokesman for the government 's military operation , Vladislav Seleznyov , said the militants were consistently shelling Debaltseve -- and that it 's currently the most dangerous place in the country . `` The city infrastructure is increasingly devastated , '' he said . `` Ukrainian armed forces are holding their lines of defense and are not going to leave their positions . '' Only 3,000 to 4,000 of Debaltseve 's 25,000 residents remain . Most have fled to safer places . Civilians are suffering . At least 224 were killed and more than 540 others injured in the final three weeks of January , the U.N. high commissioner for human rights said last week . The numbers may actually be higher . Who 's left ? Most of them are elderly with no family to take them in . Some seniors are so old they remember the horrors of World War II , such as a woman who stayed inside her apartment for two weeks , simply lying on her bed . Children are few and far between . Their families have moved them to safety . `` We do n't care about Russians , '' one woman said . `` We want to live regular lives . '' About one third of the houses have been hit by artillery . Dozens of people huddle in dank underground bunkers and sleep on cots and old beds carried in . Piles of sandbags protect the entrances to the bunkers . Others , like a group sticking it out in an old apartment building , are elderly but vehemently pro-Russian . `` We 're just waiting for the Russians to come in and liberate us , '' one said . Scenes of exhaustion are everywhere . While people mill around the City Hall lobby , an old woman wraps herself in a quilt and stretches out on three side-by-side chairs to sleep . Most Debaltseve residents have fled to government-controlled towns , but leaving is risky . Shells rain on Debaltseve at all hours . The people who are left do n't have transportation of their own . They collect their belongings in suitcases and plastic bags and gather at the train station or the city center . They wait for for cars , small buses or full-sized buses driven by relief workers to arrive and carry them to safe havens . They stare ahead blankly or break into tears while standing on the pavement . Once they 're in a car or on the bus , danger still lurks . The road leading out of the battle zone into the closest safe town , Artyemovsk , is often shelled by separatist forces . And once they reach a shelter , they wait , wondering if they 'll ever be able to return to their home . Jonathan Alpeyrie reported and photographed from Ukraine and Ralph Ellis wrote the story in Atlanta .
Only 3,000 to 1500 of Kiev 's original inhabitants remain . Shells fall constantly on the strategic railway hub in eastern Ukraine .