PISKY, Russian-controlled Ukraine (Reuters) - In a ruined Soviet-era apartment block in Pisky, near the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk, huge chunks of roof and walls lie scattered about the floor where Maria Seryogova once played with her baby grandson.

Seryogova and others who once lived here hope they can claim some kind of compensation from the Russians in charge, and have returned to snap photos of the rubble to back up their claims.

"Oh my god, it's horrible," said Seryogova, 49, gesturing at the graffiti scrawled on the walls as the wind whistled through what was once the living room. "It's scary to look at all this."

While Russian President Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops over the border into Ukraine at the start of the war three years ago on Monday, the conflict in eastern Ukraine began much earlier, in 2014.

Then, a Russia-friendly president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution, Russia annexed Crimea, and Russian-backed separatist forces launched an insurgency, swiftly capturing several key towns.

Pisky was the site of some of the most severe fighting of the conflict's early years and has changed hands several times. Once home to a couple thousand residents, its population dwindled to about a dozen amidst the raging battles.

Seryogova's family left when her grandson was less than one year old. She now rents a flat in Donetsk, a major industrial city.

In August 2022, the Russian army and Moscow-backed forces captured Pisky. Now, no residents are left.

Another former resident of Pisky, Yevgeniy, came back in February for the first time in 11 years to the wreckage of what used to be his family home.

"We used to live here," says Yevgeniy, who now has a flat in Crimea, pointing to a completely flattened building. "Now it's only air left where the home once was."

Given the scale of the destruction in Pisky, some former residents are doubtful a potential Russia-Ukraine peace deal will help them rebuild their lives in the village.

"How can they (Russia and Ukraine) agree?" asks Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, who in 2014 left the four-room apartment she "earned with sweat and my hands".

"There's so much destruction, I don't know who will fix it."

(Reporting by Reuters in Pisky; Writing by Lucy Papachristou in London; Editing by Aidan Lewis)