Maria, a nine-year-old girl suffering from cerebral palsy, was able to stand and walk on her own before the outbreak of armed conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.Now, after five months of shelling in and around her hometown of Yasynuvata, a strategic rail hub that has changed hands several times during the conflict, her condition has deteriorated as stress has stiffened her muscles and crippled her posture. She can no longer stand unsupported.‘Kids like Maria are much more afraid than others,’ said Maria’s grandmother Tamara, who brought the girl through fighting and roadblocks for treatment in Donetsk, the region’s largest city and now the separatists’ main stronghold.‘All this bombing has pushed her recovery back by about a year and a half,’ she said, cradling Maria in her arms. Maria is among about 30 young patients undergoing treatment in the half-full Donetsk clinic.