Residents of Ukraine's Orikhiv try to survive in the ruins

A police officer walks past a damaged house in the frontline town of Orikhiv, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine February 28, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

ORIKHIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - In the shattered town of Orikhiv not far from the southeastern front in Ukraine, Svitlana, a grandmother, sleeps in the brick-walled basement of her apartment block where she lives with her husband to shelter from Russian bombs.

Their hometown in Zaporizhzhia region some 10 kilometres from one of the last year's most dangerous front lines in the war with Russia has emptied to roughly 1,000 people from its pre-war population of nearly 14,000.