Messages had been trickling out of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol last week, some simply with the assurance: "We're alive".
WARNING: This story contains graphic content that readers may find distressing.
For many, the city has now gone dark, leaving friends and relatives to suffer through days of silence.
"I call my family in Mariupol, I call my friends in Mariupol, but there is no answer," Svitlana Kelada told the ABC.
Local officials said a convoy of more than 160 cars left Mariupol on Monday, local time, in what appeared to be the first successful attempt to arrange a "humanitarian corridor" to evacuate civilians from the encircled Ukrainian city.
After several days of failed attempts to deliver supplies to Mariupol and provide safe passage out for trapped civilians, the city council said a local ceasefire was holding and the convoy had left for the city of Zaporizhzhia.
But Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, later said Russia had yet again blocked a humanitarian aid convoy trying to reach Mariupol with supplies.
Dr Kelada — a Ukrainian general practitioner living in north-west Victoria — last made contact with her loved ones in Mariupol around March 2.
That was the day Russian forces moved to encircle the city, trapping the roughly 400,000 people who remain with no access to water, food or medicine.
Dr Kelada said nobody was prepared for this level of escalation.
Roads have become too dangerous to leave, so families with children have been forced to stay and bunker down in "improvised shelter", Dr Kelada said.
'Worst-case scenario' awaits trapped civilians
Mariupol has suffered badly since Russia invaded, with more than 2,500 residents being killed since February 24, according to Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday warned the "worst-case scenario" is yet to come if aid doesn't reach the city.
"Dead bodies, of civilians and combatants, remain trapped under the rubble or lying in the open where they fell," the ICRC said.
Zhenya Gavra, 26, is a Ukranian woman from Mariupol who is currently living in Turkey.
Her parents and two grandmothers were still at their apartment in the city's outer suburbs when she last heard from them on March 2.
"I'm worried, but I believe that they're smart, and they're hiding somewhere," she told the ABC.
"Our city is ruined. Every day we get pictures of new destroyed buildings where our families and friends live," she said.
She said friends had heard from loved ones in the city centre last week, after they were able to briefly access a mobile network.
Some could only send a quick message saying, "We're alive", while others provided details of the devastation.
"My classmate in Mariupol went to a safe place with her baby because her flat was destroyed.
"She went about 20 kilometres by foot, under fire and near mines."
Ms Gavra said her friend, Diana, recently received a message from her mother saying that her hand was broken and she was wounded by shrapnel.
"People said that they got calls from their relatives, saying that bodies were laying on the street and dogs had started to eat them," she said.
Yulia Crowther is from Kyiv, but now lives in Brisbane.
She was able to reach her friend, who lives in Mariupol, two days ago, but she now fears the worst.
"I offered for her to come to my house in Australia, but now she is not answering. I don't know why," she said.
Calls for urgent humanitarian agreement
The head of the ICRC, Peter Maurer, said that residents of Mariupol "have endured a weeks-long, life-and-death nightmare".
ICRC's operational leader in Mariupol, Sasha Volkov, said the sound of warfare was constant.
"Buildings are struck, and shrapnel flies everywhere. This is the situation every person in the city faces," Mr Volkov said.
The Geneva-based humanitarian agency has offered to act as a neutral intermediary in negotiations, calling for an immediate agreement on the terms of a ceasefire and routes for safe passage.
Nearly 125,000 people have been evacuated via humanitarian corridors from conflict zones in Ukraine, Mr Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday.
But unceasing barrages have thwarted repeated attempts to bring aid into Mariupol and evacuate its trapped civilians.
Ukrainian authorities have accused Russian forces of shelling evacuation routes.
"The key task is Mariupol," Mr Zelenskyy said.
Moscow has continuously denied targeting civilians during the invasion, saying it has been conducting a "special military operation", taking aim at military targets.
But last week an air strike on a children's and maternity hospital in Mariupol killed at least three and wounded 17.
Videos have also emerged of tanks emblazoned with Russia's notorious Z symbol firing on residential apartment buildings in the city.
Will there be a chance to visit 'my Mariupol' again?
Ekaterina Barysheva was born in the maternity hospital that was shelled by Russian forces on March 9.
The 29-year-old left Mariupol for Belgium 13 years ago, but her family still lives in an apartment just 1 kilometre from the site.
"My mother was born in that maternity [hospital] too. My aunt works there but, luckily, she wasn't there," Ms Barysheva told the ABC.
Ms Barysheva has lost contact with her family for several days at a time, but was able to reach them briefly yesterday.
In past calls, her family has described the grim conditions living with no electricity, heating, food or water.
They have been melting snow to drink, shower and clean the toilet, she said.
"People use furniture from the cafes and restaurants to make some fire outside to keep [themselves] warm. It was minus 6 to 10 degrees [Celsius]. You can imagine how cold they are," Ms Barysheva said.
"In the apartment, they didn't have any heating, just sitting there in their winter clothes."
Ms Barysheva says her heart is broken, and she doesn't think she will ever have a chance to visit "my Mariupol" again.
"[My family] didn't expect it to be so horrible. They were really scared to leave because everything they have is in the apartment," she said.
