Terror, grief and rising smoke leave completely empty streets as Ukrainians flee the border town’s fiercest attack yet British News

Sky News followed two volunteer rescuers as they drove a white van into the town to help residents evacuate.

Russian forces launched a surprise attack early Friday to open a new front in the war.

One of their targets was Vovchansk, a city five kilometers from Ukraine’s border with Russia.

Russian forces reportedly advanced 1 km before being stopped by Ukrainian reinforcements.

Deborah Haynes from Sky was there.

Terror and grief were the overwhelming feelings of dozens of mostly elderly men and women who fled the Ukrainian border town of Vovchansk after the Russian attack.

They gathered at an evacuation point just outside the city and said it was the fiercest fighting they had ever seen since the full-scale invasion began more than two years ago.

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On Friday, Sky News followed two volunteer rescuers as they drove into the city in a white van to help residents evacuate.

On the way there was smoke hanging over the road – we were told that all roads to Vovchansk were under attack by Russian artillery, rockets and drones.

One of the attacks had ignited a fire in a forest along the road, sending clouds of smoke into the air.

The streets of the part of town we entered were almost completely empty.

We drove to a residential area with bungalows.

A group of five older men and women sat on a roadside bench and seemed happy to stay there.

The rescue team stopped at an address where they had been told four residents wanted to be evacuated.

They knocked on the door but no one answered.

Instead, a petite gray-haired woman who lives in the house next door pushed open her green gate and told rescuers that her neighbors had already left.

74-year-old Valentina was distraught and had no intention of leaving, but rescuers persuaded her.

“Let’s go, don’t stay here, it’s dangerous,” they said.

Suddenly there was a bang – it seemed to change her mind.

She collected a few simple belongings and was led out of her house and into the van.

The mayor said around 500 people had been evacuated from the city since the attack began, but the city’s population stands at 3,000 and many more still need to be evacuated.

Evacuation measures are expected to continue.