The Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine has long been in Moscow's sights. Vladimir Putin reportedly says he'll freeze the war in return for full control of it.
Russia already controls 70% of Donetsk and nearly all of neighbouring Luhansk - and is making slow but steady advances.
I'm heading to the front-line Donetsk town of Dobropillia with two humanitarian volunteers, just 8km (five miles) from Russia's positions. They're on a mission to bring the sick, elderly and children to safer ground.
At first, it goes like clockwork. We speed into the town in an armoured car, equipped with rooftop drone-jamming equipment, hitting 130km/h (80mph). The road is covered in tall green netting which obscures visibility from above - protecting it from Russian drones.
This is their second trip of the morning, and the streets are mostly empty. The few remaining residents only leave their homes to quickly collect supplies. Russian attacks come daily.
The town already looks abandoned and has been without water for a week. Every building we pass has been damaged, with some reduced to ruins.
In the previous five days, Laarz, a 31-year-old German, and Varia, a 19-year-old Ukrainian, who work for the charity Universal Aid Ukraine, have made dozens of trips to evacuate people.
A week earlier, small groups of Russian troops breached the defences around the town, sparking fears that the front line of Ukraine's so-called 'fortress belt' - some of the most heavily defended parts of the Ukrainian front - could collapse.
Extra troops were rushed to the area, and Ukrainian authorities say the situation has been stabilised. But most of Dobropillia's residents feel it's time to go.
Laarz returns with more evacuees, and with drones still in the air above, drives out of town even faster than he arrived. Inside the evacuation convoy, I sit beside Anton, 31. His mother stayed behind. She cried as he departed and he hopes she will leave too soon.
In war, front lines shift, towns are lost and won and lost again, but with Russia advancing and the fate of the region hanging on negotiations, this may be the final time Anton and the other evacuees see their homes.
Anton says he's never left the town before. Over the roar of the engine, I ask him if Ukraine should relinquish Donbas - the resource-rich greater region made up of Donetsk and Luhansk.
'We need to sit at the negotiation table and after all resolve this conflict in a peaceful way. Without blood, without victims,' he says.
But Varia, 19, feels differently. 'We can never trust Putin or Russia, whatever they are saying, and we have experience of that. If we give them Donbas, it won't stop anything but only give Russia more room for another attack,' she tells me.
The situation in Donbas is increasingly perilous for Ukraine as Russia slowly but steadily advances. President Volodymyr Zelensky has scoffed at suggestions that it could be lost by the end of this year, predicting it would take four more years for Russia to fully occupy what remains.
This part of Donetsk is critical to Ukraine's defensive. If lost or given to Russia, neighbouring Kharkiv and Zaporizhia regions – and beyond – would be at greater risk.
The cost of holding on is measured in Ukrainian soldiers' lives and body parts. The first man arrives conscious, a bullet wound to chest from a firefight. The casualties are from fighting in Pokrovsk, a key city in Donetsk's defence that's been brutally contested.
As I drive out of town, witnessing the newly constructed fortifications, the resolve to defend this besieged land is evident, marking the grim realities set against ongoing diplomacy.
Russia already controls 70% of Donetsk and nearly all of neighbouring Luhansk - and is making slow but steady advances.
I'm heading to the front-line Donetsk town of Dobropillia with two humanitarian volunteers, just 8km (five miles) from Russia's positions. They're on a mission to bring the sick, elderly and children to safer ground.
At first, it goes like clockwork. We speed into the town in an armoured car, equipped with rooftop drone-jamming equipment, hitting 130km/h (80mph). The road is covered in tall green netting which obscures visibility from above - protecting it from Russian drones.
This is their second trip of the morning, and the streets are mostly empty. The few remaining residents only leave their homes to quickly collect supplies. Russian attacks come daily.
The town already looks abandoned and has been without water for a week. Every building we pass has been damaged, with some reduced to ruins.
In the previous five days, Laarz, a 31-year-old German, and Varia, a 19-year-old Ukrainian, who work for the charity Universal Aid Ukraine, have made dozens of trips to evacuate people.
A week earlier, small groups of Russian troops breached the defences around the town, sparking fears that the front line of Ukraine's so-called 'fortress belt' - some of the most heavily defended parts of the Ukrainian front - could collapse.
Extra troops were rushed to the area, and Ukrainian authorities say the situation has been stabilised. But most of Dobropillia's residents feel it's time to go.
Laarz returns with more evacuees, and with drones still in the air above, drives out of town even faster than he arrived. Inside the evacuation convoy, I sit beside Anton, 31. His mother stayed behind. She cried as he departed and he hopes she will leave too soon.
In war, front lines shift, towns are lost and won and lost again, but with Russia advancing and the fate of the region hanging on negotiations, this may be the final time Anton and the other evacuees see their homes.
Anton says he's never left the town before. Over the roar of the engine, I ask him if Ukraine should relinquish Donbas - the resource-rich greater region made up of Donetsk and Luhansk.
'We need to sit at the negotiation table and after all resolve this conflict in a peaceful way. Without blood, without victims,' he says.
But Varia, 19, feels differently. 'We can never trust Putin or Russia, whatever they are saying, and we have experience of that. If we give them Donbas, it won't stop anything but only give Russia more room for another attack,' she tells me.
The situation in Donbas is increasingly perilous for Ukraine as Russia slowly but steadily advances. President Volodymyr Zelensky has scoffed at suggestions that it could be lost by the end of this year, predicting it would take four more years for Russia to fully occupy what remains.
This part of Donetsk is critical to Ukraine's defensive. If lost or given to Russia, neighbouring Kharkiv and Zaporizhia regions – and beyond – would be at greater risk.
The cost of holding on is measured in Ukrainian soldiers' lives and body parts. The first man arrives conscious, a bullet wound to chest from a firefight. The casualties are from fighting in Pokrovsk, a key city in Donetsk's defence that's been brutally contested.
As I drive out of town, witnessing the newly constructed fortifications, the resolve to defend this besieged land is evident, marking the grim realities set against ongoing diplomacy.
