Photo: Cui Meng/GT

 
After 16 hours of traveling, the train from Kiev pulled into the railway station in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on Friday morning. Only a few people got off the train, which headed to Mariupol.

It was the third day after our arrival in Ukraine. The volatile security situation had been hampering the journey to Donetsk, which is at the heart of an ongoing conflict between the region's self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Ukraine's government forces.

The twists and turns started even before our arrival in Kiev after transiting in Moscow.

Our air ticket agent warned that Aeroflot said it could cancel the flight linking Moscow and Kiev at any minute. Luckily, that didn't happen. But finding an interpreter  in  rebel-held Donetsk proved harder.

Almost all contacts in Ukraine told us that it is very dangerous now in Donetsk, where local residents have fled their home to seek refuge elsewhere. Potential interpreters approached by the Global Times said they wouldn't go there. One of them was inclined to take the job, but was talked out of it by his family.

A blogger based in Donetsk also told the Global Times that the security situation there is complicated, and a journalist from Russia Today had reportedly lost contact.

Despite a cease-fire announced by the DPR earlier this week within a 40-kilometer radius of MH17's crash site to grant safe access to international investigators, fighting around the encircled city was still intense.

While downtown Donetsk is considered to be relatively safe, a Kiev-based  fixer warned the Global Times that no place in the city is "safe-safe."

The airport to the city's northwest is now controlled by Ukraine government forces, and is at the center of fighting.

The only safe passage to Donetsk is the railway, but on Monday a plant close to the station was shelled and led to casualties. Despite the attack, the railway service is still operating.

Delays caused by fighting have plagued the train route, lengthening the 10-hour trip from Kiev to up to 30 hours.

Our train arrived at the city's rail station just two hours late. The morning was clear and peaceful, as locals ventured out near heavily-shelled buildings. But that peace doesn't seem set to last.

Vera, a local guide who picked us up at the station, said only about 10 percent of Donetsk's 1 million people  remain in the city. The downtown area, formerly the site of daily traffic jams, had only a few people on the streets.

On Friday there were not many armed separatists seen in the city except at the former local government headquarters, now the DPR's HQ, where several men in military uniforms and armed with AK-47s ran a checkpoint while another group maintained watch nearby.

Photo: Cui Meng/GT