Tamara and her friends Halyna and Ljudmila talk about how they lived in the basement, without heat, electricity and water.

Some weeks they didn't go above ground at all.

- We stuck together.

It's easier to survive that way.

Someone cooks, another does the dishes, says Tamara.

Today, most of the apartments in the building are empty.

The three women's children and grandchildren fled early, but they themselves did not make it when the city's residents were evacuated.

Elderly died on the way to safety

Several of the elderly died during the occupation.

- Many old people died during the bombings.

On the way down to the basement, they had a brain hemorrhage.

There were no doctors, says Ljudmila.

Izium was transformed from a leafy small town into a battlefield for a few weeks in March as Russian forces gradually took control of the city.

The Russian retreat went all the faster.

On the evening of September 9, the three women watched to their surprise as Russian soldiers with knapsacks marched past on their way out of town.

- The next morning our Ukrainians were here.

We cried from happiness, says Halyna.

Mass graves found

In just over a week, the Ukrainian forces liberated an area as large as Sörmland, including Izium.

The sudden breakthrough has been explained by the Russians moving large troop forces into southern Ukraine to meet the Ukrainian counter-offensive against Kherson, but without counting on the risk of a counter-offensive in the east.

After the recapture of the city, 447 dead bodies have been found in mass graves outside the city, some of them with traces of torture.

According to the local authorities, most were civilians.