'How many graves? Go count them': Russia batters Ukraine's east

SEVERODONETSK, Ukraine — The rows of graves were marked with simple crosses of fresh-cut wood. Black plaques with gold lettering declared the names. The occasional wreath broke the monotony of dull earthen colors, and, in the front, three rectangular holes awaited the newly fallen.

"How many graves? I don't know. Go count them," said the caretaker of this cemetery on Severodonetsk's southern edge, which started to grow when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. "We're digging new ones almost every day now."

In the escalating fight over eastern Ukraine, Russia's army — after consolidating and redeploying its forces from other parts of the country, including the capital, Kyiv — has renewed its thrust to seize the Donbas region. Fresh destruction is wreaked daily on communities battered both by nearly eight years of war against Moscow-backed separatists as well as this latest onslaught the Russians call a "special military operation."

Russia's strategy is to encircle the east and close in on Ukrainian forces. That has placed