Everywhere we looked, the town was burning. Every hundred metres was a destroyed home, every few seconds the thud of a shell impacting. The acrid smell of smoke infected the air.
The sound of Russia methodically wiping Vovchansk from the map was interrupted only by the bark of retaliatory mortar fire, the churn of gravel under the police car speeding in front of our vehicle, and cries for help from the few residents left behind.
This is the epicentre of a new assault on Ukraine from the north.
Russian troops advanced across the border three miles away into the Kharkiv region on Friday and are already fighting within the town limits. For now Ukrainian troops are holding them north of the river Vovcha, but they
