The national police chief told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Monday that criminal investigations into the deaths of more than 12,000 Ukrainians included some found in mass graves.

‘We live on the front line now,’ said Svitlana Kaplun, whose family fled as shelling reached their neighborhood in the city of Krasnohorivka.

Ukraine, long known as the ‘bread basket of Europe,’ is one of the world’s biggest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but much of that flow has been halted by the war.

After abandoning its bungled attempt to storm Kyiv two months ago, Russia declared that taking the entire Donbas is its main objective.

Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to fight for control of Sievierodonetsk.