A picture shows cars burned after shelling near a church in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. (Agence France-Presse)
Pensioner Anatoliy gestures at a row of burnt out cars as he worries about what might be in store for his east Ukraine hometown -- the frontline port city of Mariupol.
"People are afraid and don't want this to be repeated," he tells AFP. The tangled wreckage on the edge of the steel-making hub -- the largest government-held city left in the conflict zone -- is the result of rocket strikes by pro-Russian rebels that killed dozens in January.
Now, despite signs that a shaky ceasefire might be taking hold, residents of Mariupol remain scared their city could be the next target for any further advances by the separatists.
"People want the ceasefire to work," Anatoliy says ruefully. Several villages to the east of the city saw fierce fighting until a truce took hold some two days back and Anatoliy says hundreds of civilians were evacuated.
"They are asking what we need this shooting for?" he says. Since it was recaptured from pro-Russian separatists in June, Mariupol, which had a population of some 500,000 before the conflict, has been under the tenuous control of Kiev.
In early September, a rebel offensive that Ukraine and the West said was spearheaded by Russian troops reached the city's outskirts. But a truce deal stopped an all-out offensive to seize it.
Kiev says the separatists still have tanks and heavy weapons massed around and has scrambled in the intervening months to build up its defences.
Standing in front of an armoured vehicle, Andriy Dyachenko, a spokesman for the volunteer Azov battalion that has often led fighting around the city, says he is now confident any attack can be warded off.
"The Ukrainian forces have all the necessary resources to defend the city in the near future," Dyachenko says. Despite the military bluster, some civilians in the town have left for safer locations. Mayor Yuriy Khotlubey told AFP that some 25,000 people have fled the town in recent weeks.
Although Khotlubey says he is "convinced no one will seize" Mariupol, local authorities have nonetheless been making sure the population is ready for the worst.
They are periodically running drills for local inhabitants -- blasting out sirens warning of an attack and evacuating people into underground shelters.
'Road to Crimea' Around town the atmosphere stays tense. At rush hour there are few people on the streets and many shops and banks remain closed. Signs are posted on houses indicating the way to the nearest bomb shelter and windows are protected with tape in case of shelling.
And for some living in the city, the sense remains that sooner or later Mariupol will come under serious attack again.
The reason is its strategic location between the Russian border and the Crimea peninsula that Moscow annexed last year.
Russia only has a precarious ferry link to the Crimea, which is essentially under economic blockade from Kiev. A multi-billion-dollar bridge project linking the peninsula to the Russia mainland will take years to complete.
That means, Mariupol residents say, that the Kremlin -- and the forces Ukraine accuses of being its proxies on the ground -- will inevitably look to grab a land corridor.
"They need a road to Crimea," Petro, a 47 year-old steel worker, said simply.