Uncollected corpses wrapped in blankets, coats or any available covering lie in courtyards cleared of debris. Those killed are often buried in common graves.
Some 400,000 people have been trapped in the strategic port city on the Sea of Azov for more than two weeks, sheltering from heavy bombardment that has severed central supplies of electricity, heating and water, according to local authorities. Residents say no one expected this in post-Soviet Ukraine - an unrelenting onslaught from what was once thought of as a"fraternal" Russia - though some have lived through other upheavals that jolted the country back under Soviet rule.
"My mother-in-law was born in 1936. She survived through the siege of Leningrad," he said, referring to the 900-day Nazi encirclement of the city now known as St Petersburg."She was an honoured worker of fish farming in the Russian Federation. So that is where she is."