As troops in mazes of trenches pound each other with shells, the terror of war draws closer to the city of Sloviansk
The call came at about midday on Wednesday. There had been “chemical poisoning” after a blast and patients needed collecting.
Fears of a Russian chemical weapons attack have haunted Ukraine almost since the war began, and as the volunteer medics in Sloviansk pulled on the ageing gas masks and plastic overalls that were their only protection, they wondered if this was it.