Originally heading to rebel-held areas in east Ukraine to fill up with coal to sell back in government territory, it has been stuck for a month at a blockade by nationalist protesters and military veterans against ongoing trade with Russian-backed insurgents.
The action has managed a rare feat in Ukraine -- it has united both the separatists who control swathes of its industrial heartland and the pro-Western government in anger, hitting key industries and threatening power outages.
In the process it has also highlighted an uncomfortable truth for both sides -- despite a bloody 34-month conflict that has claimed 10,000 lives they remain in many ways reliant on each other.
"This is a protest without end," a former pro-Kiev fighter going by the nom-de-guerre Marcel told AFP, as activists warmed their hands at fires burning in old oil barrels.
"We are not going anywhere until our country cuts off trade ties with these occupiers."
'Traitors get punished'
The blockade consists of four different camps where scores of activists man checkpoints across roads and railway lines connecting government territory to the two self-proclaimed rebel republics.
The protesters -- many of whom battled the rebellion Kiev says is masterminded by Russia -- live in rows of military green tents and survive on supplies donated by supporters.
They say they are blocking an illegal trade in coal, metals, timber, cigarettes and alcohol that is helping to fund the insurgents and keep Ukraine's war grinding on.
Marcel said he suspects arms are being smuggled through too and that he was willing to expand the blockade to Ukraine's border with Russia in a bid to force the return of prisoners of war and an end to the trade in contraband.
But other activists say their protest is directed just as much at the government of President Petro Poroshenko as at the rebels.
"One of our demands is that these authorities leave," Leonid Lytvynenko, 47, who commands another checkpoint told AFP. "They are traitors, and in wartime traitors get punished."
'Domino effect'
The month-long blockade has succeeded in riling the foes on both sides of the frontline.
Ukraine's Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has blasted the halting of coal supplies as "a crime" and the country was forced to announce emergency measures in the face of power outages.
On the other side the rebel leaders Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky said they have starting seizing control of enterprises in their territory in response to the blockade, a move backed up by Moscow.
For Musa Magomedov, the director of one of Europe's biggest coking plants in the frontline town of Avdiivka, the problems are already mounting.
From March he has decided to cut the pay of employees due to power problems.
"We used some coal from the non-government areas, now we have been forced to substitute it for more expensive products," he told AFP.
He warns that there could be a "domino effect" from the blockade that could see whole industries grind to a halt.
"These political games can have serious consequences," Magomedov warned.
But for those manning the blockade the warnings of shuttered factories or rolling blackouts mean little.
"We don't have any light here anyway. It may be cold in at night in the tent but I'm willing to stay here," said former fighter Marcel.
"And for the guys at the front under enemy shelling the situation is much worse."
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