Ukrainians know it’s coming, their resolve well-documented.

       Fighting has grown fierce.

       Powerful explosions were heard in Kramatorsk, in Ukraine’s east, Kherson in the south, and in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, in advance of an expected major Russian onslaught in the industrial eastern heartland known as the Donbas.

       Carolyn Cole, who has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Liberia and Gaza to name a few, now turns her lens to the struggles Ukrainians face in the next expected invasion by Russian forces.

       April 15, 2022 – Severodonetsk, Ukraine Smoke rises above 400 new graves in the town of Severodonetsk, where the Ukraine - Russia war continues. Most residents have evacuated, but a few remain.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

       An elderly man visits his son in an apartment building in Severodonetsk, where he says they are living in underground shelters.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

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       Ukrainian forces guard the city center of Severodonetsk as shelling can be heard.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

       April 14, 2022 – Slavyansk, Ukraine A food giveaway organized by the mayor of Slavyansk, Ukraine, drew a long line of residents as the threat of a second offensive by Russian forces appears imminent.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

       The train station Slavyansk has closed down after a Russian missile attack that killed 57 people in the nearby train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. A man walks across the tracks where street dogs live.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

       A woman waits for an evacuation car convoy organized by the Red Cross to leave Slavyansk, Ukraine.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

       Lyudmilla Botkovskaya leaves Slavyansk with her dog, Kashatanka, in a duffle bag.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

       April 12, 2022 – Odesa, Ukraine Many of those left behind in Ukraine are those less fortunate, like this family in Odesa.

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       Svitlana Doroshenko kisses her baby, Maxim, 1, as her father, Ihor Doroshenko, watches the news about the war in their small apartment in Odesa, Ukraine. They can’t afford to leave the country.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

       Children being evacuated from Ukraine by their families receive a meal at the train station in Odesa before the next leg of their journey.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

       An elderly woman walks by sandbags set up for protection in Odesa. Many of those left behind in the war are elderly people.

       (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)