DONETSK: Sitting up with difficulty in her hospital bed, Raisa Bulda says that despite months of treatment she still feels like she is only just beginning her recovery.
It was back in August that a shell tore through her home on the edge of rebel bastion Donetsk in eastern Ukraine and left her screaming for help in a pool of blood.
But it was last week that she finally had a full operation on her shattered right leg and so much work -- getting back on her feet and trying to return to a normal life -- still lies ahead.
"It will be long and tough," says the pensioner, 67, looking down at the metal brace clamped from her knee to her ankle.
It will take some six more months of supervision before doctors say her leg will have healed as much as it can.
"After the course of treatment, if all is okay, I will then be able to try to learn how to walk, just like a little child," the former nurse says.
The brutal fighting between government forces and Russian-backed rebels has been raging already for some eight months.
But recovering from the injuries inflicted by the mortars and missiles will take some residents of the region much longer.
The United Nations estimates that more than 10,200 people -- many of them civilians -- have been wounded since April. Another 4,700 have lost their lives.
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