As round four of peace talks got underway, Russian forces moved closer than ever to the heart of Kyiv, with a residential housing block the latest civilian target.
The building, which is just a few kilometres from the city centre, was hit in overnight shelling, killing two civilians.
Hundreds of people live in the apartment block. It was turned into an inferno and left blackened.
"I tried to get through the debris, but water was pouring everywhere because pipes were broken," one person says.
Inside, the possessions of ordinary Ukrainians lie shattered and scattered.
Even closer to the centre of Kyiv, an intercepted Russian missile did far more damage than just startling someone on their morning walk. Another was killed after getting caught in the mess of a mangled tram.
If the attack on Kyiv is just beginning, then Mariupol's appears never-ending. The besieged city is battered, bloody, and barely hanging on.
More than 2500 civilians have died in this cauldron of hell, and those living in it are barely surviving, with no water, power, or heat.
The first successful evacuation meant 160 cars were able to escape on Monday
Elsewhere, 'desperate' doesn't do the cities of the southern coast justice. In Mykolaiv, the latest shelling killed at least two people. But just two hours west, Odessa waits in a nervous peace as locals stare at the horizon waiting for the Russian warships they know will soon appear.
The neighbouring hostilities are not lost on the people of Odessa. The war is edging closer by the day, and if Russia does make it here, it will effectively cut off Ukraine from overseas trade and military aid.
The Ukrainian navy base is there, and a large majority of all Ukrainian imports and exports come through the port.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to boldly walk the streets, describing the ongoing peace talks as "difficult" after they were halted on Monday.
But with every day that passes, so much more is being lost in Ukraine. Buildings are being bombed, history is reduced to rubble, livelihoods burn to the ground, and lives are stolen.
"Ukraine is on fire as the country is being decimated before the eyes of the world," says Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General.
The image of a heavily pregnant woman being carried away on a stretcher after the Mariupol hospital maternity wing was hit was etched in aching hearts around the world.
Doctors later revealed that both she and her baby have since died.
Russia had claimed those victims were faked, calling them crisis actors, but this is the unbearable reality of a needless war.
