REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SLAVYANSK -- For Aleksandra, a woman in her 80s, survival in the war zone comes down to one thing: water.

Like many others in the flashpoint eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk, she has come to central Lenin Square to fill her bottle from the stagnant pool at the fountain. She has no other choice.

"It's mostly for washing. If I drink it, I boil it first," she said, declining to give her last name.

"There's no water anymore, no power, no nothing."

For the past week, since fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government troops led to the destruction of the water supply, a trip to the fountain on Lenin Square has become a daily routine for many people in Slavyansk.

That's the price they have to pay for living in a city which has been a stronghold of pro-Russian insurgents since April.

It's a fate that they have to share with millions of others in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where the water supply has been curtailed or halted entirely.

But in the streets of Slavyansk, a city of 120,000 residents, fighting takes place nearly every day.

In those conditions, survival has become a constant struggle for the city's helplessly trapped civilians -- men, women and children.

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