Stay or leave? Ukrainians struggle as sounds of war draw close.

Gennadi Borishpol doesn’t scare easily. But he knows that his hometown of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine is among the next targets of Russia’s march into the Donbas.

The sound of war is constant, with artillery and rocket duels on the horizon to the north. Blasts of outgoing Ukrainian rounds erupt from inside the city; incoming fire is growing, including a strike overnight Tuesday that officials say left one civilian dead.

“You can hear it – the front line is coming,” said Mr. Borishpol, a former firefighter who was among first responders at the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. 

But that was two weeks ago. Now, Russia’s war has come much closer.

“It has been much louder these days,” says