By Alex Crawford, special correspondent

The Russian military continued to shell and open fire on the only escape route for those trapped in Irpin, a satellite town about eight kilometers from the Ukrainian capital.

The city has experienced increasingly heavy bombardment over the past few days with hundreds of people pouring out of the city to try to escape the advancing Russian forces that appeared to be heading for the capital Kyiv.

Ukraine blew up a bridge linking Irpin with Kyiv in a bid to slow Russian troops down and planks of wood were laid over the water and debris as it was turned into an emergency evacuation corridor.

But 24 hours after the route was filled with anxious and frightened families, it became increasingly dangerous with repeated attacks on civilians trying to escape.

Most of the women and children trying to find their way to safety and waiting for evacuation vehicles were seen throwing themselves on the muddy ground or ducking down in fear as the shooting drew near.

Children clutched their soft toys in one hand and parents in the other were forced to run out of town as mortars continued to land and rocket whistles overhead. The toddler was handed over to soldiers and other foreigners as civilians rushed through tree trunks to try to escape the line of fire.

“Russian soldiers are everywhere,” one young man told us, gasping for air from running. “And they shot them all.”

The Russian army appeared to be making inroads at Irpin – with several witnesses telling us they had seen troops inside and moving around the city.

Some say they first fled from the surrounding villages that were attacked before taking refuge in Irpin and then being attacked there as well. A mother and her fifteen year old son have fled from Romanika outside Irpin.

Ivan Wagner said of his hometown: “All the houses burned down…and that’s all I can say…so much destruction…everything was destroyed…nothing to build or save…nothing left. “

Her mother sobbed constantly as she told us how she had to leave her aging mother and father. They were too weak to run across the uneven planks of wood under the broken bridge.

“I left them there to die,” said Lesya Wagner, tears running down her cheeks. “I told my husband he had to go back and find them. I couldn’t leave them there to die.” He sat crying and watched the victim being brought in.

Soldiers and civilians with injured legs, shrapnel in their legs, gunfire in their backs, some using their belts as homemade tourniquets.

Children and toddlers are being comforted and often comforted by their shocked and devastated parents and relatives.

“One, two, three breaths,” I heard a mother tell her little girl over and over. Some had small bags, others had suitcases, some had nothing but clothes on which to stand.

Twenty-four hours earlier, we had been able to walk on the same main road leading to the entrance of Irpin. For most of the day, it was now a perilous journey.

Yet when a woman sat down to watch us film her on top of a trainer taking her out of the battle zone and towards the capital, she waved cheerfully and punched her fists in the air in defiance.

This is probably all that sustains Ukraine today – the collective feeling that they are not giving up. They have no other choice now.