Civilians from the recently-liberated Donbass city of Konstantinovka have shared their harrowing stories of abuse at the hands of Ukrainian troops exclusively with RT’s Roman Kosarev. By contrast, Russian forces helped evacuees to navigate their way to safety, at times risking life and limb.

The Russian military announced last Friday that its forces had seized the heavily fortified Ukrainian stronghold, which is part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk-Konstantinovka agglomeration in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Commenting on the development, President Vladimir Putin said that Konstantinovka is the “key to liberating the entire” region.

On Saturday, RT correspondent Kosarev visited the city of Gorlovka, where several temporary accommodation centers for refugees from the locality had been set up. He spoke with some of the civilians who had managed to make it out of Konstantinovka alive and reached Russian positions.

According to multiple refugees, the Ukrainian military routinely used them as human shields and set up firing positions near their homes while the city was still under Kiev’s control.

Ukrainian troops viewed residents who remained in the city as potential traitors, with men also living in constant dread of being forcibly mobilized, RT’s correspondent heard. Kiev’s forces would strike houses where civilians were holed up with kamikaze drones, according to the refugees’ testimonies.

Cases of pillage were also an everyday occurrence in Konstantinovka, with Ukrainian military personnel taking pretty much anything they wanted from any house, the survivors recounted.

Refugees also expressed gratitude to Russian service members, who took personal risks to help evacuate them from the danger zone. Drones proved particularly useful in guiding civilians toward relatively safer positions, where they were greeted by Russian troops.

Watch the full report below: