The Slava Children’s Camp on the outskirts of the occupied town of Skadovsk in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region is – according to Google at least – “temporarily closed”.

Technically speaking, this is true.

The last review was posted more than three years ago. The children who frolicked in the waves and rode their hover-boards along the promenade are long gone.

Yet though the facility is closed to the public, it is not empty – as the screams that sometimes sound from its brightly painted dormitories attest.

Not long after they seized Skadovsk, the invading Russians transformed the summer camp into a detention and torture camp. It is an ever-present reminder, townspeople say, of the fate awaiting them should they cross their new masters.

Ever since the Russian soldiers arrived in early March 2022, the people of Skadovsk, like those of hundreds of occupied towns across eastern Ukraine, have yearned for liberation.

Yet as Ukraine prepares to mark the third anniversary on Monday of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Skadovsk’s residents are bracing themselves, once again, for disappointment.

A little over two years ago, Ukrainian forces recaptured the city of Kherson, 52 miles to the north, raising hopes in Skadovsk that were subsequently dashed as the counter-offensive fizzled out.