Hospital Attack: Ukrainian Town Under Siege

Olena Obodets rushed to the hospital in east Ukraine moments after a Russian missile tore into its maternity ward last week, sparking a frantic evacuation of dozens of patients in the dead of night.

Days after the strike in the town of Selydove that killed a 36-year-old pregnant woman, a mother and her nine-year-old son.

The bombardment was just one horror in a months-long Russian onslaught that saw Vladimir Putin's forces last week capture the nearby battered industrial hub of Avdiivka, 30 kilometers to the east.

Apart from handing Moscow its first significant victory in nearly a year, the advances have renewed an agonizing choice for Ukrainians in places like Selydove that could be next: flee now, or hope their struggling army can save them.

As the fighting draws nearer, the police force -- including officers forced to flee towns earlier captured by Russia -- face the daunting task of evacuating civilians from increasingly dangerous territory.

Oleksandra Gavrylko, 31, the region's police spokeswoman, said the fresh strikes and Russian advances had spurred an uptick of evacuations from civilian hubs like Selydove, declining to give figures.

But the critical moment to leave Avidiivka and its surrounding hamlets was already a year ago, she said -- a grim truth their work over recent weeks had underscored.

"We transport the bodies of dead civilians so that their relatives can bury them," she added.

Next to a Soviet-era World War II memorial in Selydove, a trickle of people were returning to smoldering homes -- hit an hour before the hospital -- to salvage belongings.

Tearful staff and its owner were mulling if they would re-open at all, given the uptick in shelling and steady exit of shoppers -- some of whom had previously fled Avdiivka.