If there is a place offering relative safety in Ukraine it lies hundreds of kilometres to the west and the people of eastern Ukraine are now doing their best to reach it.

However, the highways are congested and military checkpoints are overwhelmed.

We clocked queues of three kilometres or more on the way into the city of Kramatorsk, in the embattled region of Donetsk.

At the main train station, we found a long line of hopeful passengers stretching out the door. On the other side facing the tracks, a small number of hard-working volunteers tried to bring order to the chaos.

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But as the Russians move east, the people of this city are getting out.

“Why do you feel you have to leave?” I asked one woman.

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“I am afraid for my children and my grandchildren, and me (too),” she replied.

The governor of Donetsk has told residents to evacuate. He worries that they will hinder the movement and actions of Ukrainian troops – but it isn’t easy to relocate your life.

We spoke to Kramatorsk resident Tetiana Nudko, who was about to board a train with a dog called Rocky.

“Do you know where you are going?”

“No, no I don’t know, we’re going somewhere, we’re just hoping for better. We hope to come back but we’ll wait it out and try and stay alive. It’s terrifying.”

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A moment of relief arrived in the form of a man standing on a chair in the crowded booking hall.

His name was Svyatoslav Vakarchuk and he offered a few words of encouragement to this anxious-looking congregation.

Then, a woman asked him if he would sing. “When the day comes,” she said. “The war will be over.”

He nodded, and Ukraine’s most popular entertainer began.

When the day comes,

The war will be over,

I have lost myself there,

Seen all the way to the bottom.

Hold me, hold me,

So gentle and not let me go…

Afterwards, I had a quick word with Mr Vakarchuk as the passengers and the soldiers cued up for pictures.

“Why did you come?” I asked.

“Because I want them to (know) that they are not alone so the whole country stands together with them. These people here are going to western Ukraine and that is the city that I’m from. My mum is there, my daughter is volunteering there, all my friends are waiting for these people and they will be happy (to be) hosting them.”

He turned toward the soldiers and hugged them and told them they were “heroes”.

The Ukrainian military will be tested in the days and weeks ahead. The Russians have set sights on eastern Ukraine and after a series of humiliating failures, President Putin will expect results.

The people of this region know what’s coming. Ukrainian forces fought Russian-backed separatists here in 2014 and in recent days, they have seen what’s happened to residents in the communities which surround Kyiv.

Bodies of local residents with their hands bound behind their backs have left a powerful impression.

For most here in Kramatorsk, the journey west is an act of necessity, it is not an act of choice.

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