Ambushes and nostalgia

UKRAINE FRONT LINE: 'THEY'RE ON ONE SIDE AND WE'RE ON THE OTHER'

Lyubov Voronova still remembers a time before the war when the Oskil River flowing by her east Ukraine home was an idyll where families would swim, picnic and make memories.

Now, nearly three years into Russia's invasion, Kremlin forces have brought panic and destruction to its banks in a war of attrition that has pit invader and defender on opposing banks.

"It's the front line now. They're on one side and we're on the other," Voronova said.

Her neighbour lived his whole life in the nearby village of Dvorichna on the river and wept on his knees recounting those killed there and his granddaughter's death in a Russian strike nearby.

The Oskil, which winds into Ukraine's Kharkiv region from Russia, is swept by icy winds and surrounded by expansive snow-blanketed fields dotted with Ukrainian bunkers and zigzagging trenches.