Bodies exhumed from a mass burial site near the easter Ukrainian town of Izium "showed signs of violent death", a Ukrainian official said on Friday in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called proof of war crimes by Russian forces. The discovery came as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi put pressure on Vladimir Putin to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
10:16pm: Macron condemns the 'atrocities' committed in Izium
French President Emmanuel Macron sent a tweet Friday evening forcefully criticising violence commmitted in Ukraine under the Russian occupation, following the discovery of a mass grave in the eastern part of the country.
"I condemn, in the strongest terms, the atrocities committed in Izium, Ukraine under the Russian occupation. The perpetrators will have to answer for their crimes. There is no peace without justice."
8:33pm: Bodies exhumed from mass burial sites show signs of 'violent death' according to Ukrainian official
Ninety-nine percent of exhumed bodies had signs of violent death, Ukraine's regional administration head said Friday of the mass burial site discovered after Kyiv's forces recaptured the east Ukrainian town of Izium.
"Among the bodies that were exhumed today, 99 percent showed signs of violent death," Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said on social media.
"There are several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one person is buried with a rope around his neck," he added.
"Obviously, these people were tortured and executed."
Earlier Friday, AFP journalists saw that at least one of the bodies uncovered at the burial site in a forest outside Izium had bound hands.
It was not clear, given the condition of the body, whether the victim was wearing civilian clothes or a military uniform.
6:43pm: Zelensky set to speak to UN General Assembly
UN member states voted Friday to make an exception to allow Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to address next week's General Assembly by video, despite Russian opposition.
Of the 193 member states, 101 voted in favor of allowing Zelensky to "present a pre-recorded statement" instead of in-person as usually required.
Seven members voted against the proposal, including Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February. Nineteen states abstained.
From Tuesday, some 150 heads of state and government are due to take to the podium to address the General Assembly in New York.
6:33pm: Russia 'not in a hurry' to end Ukraine war, Putin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday there were no plans to adjust Russia's military operations in Ukraine despite a counter-offensive, saying Moscow was in no rush to finish the campaign.
"The plan is not subject to adjustment," Putin told reporters during a regional summit in Uzbekistan.
"Our offensive operations in Donbas itself do not stop. They are going at a slow pace ... the Russian army is occupying newer and newer territories," Putin said.
"We are not in a hurry ...there are no changes."
5:28pm: Ukraine ready to swap Russian ammonia exports for return of POWs
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday he would only support the idea of reopening Russian ammonia exports through Ukraine if Moscow handed Ukrainian prisoners of war back to Kyiv.
In an interview, Zelensky told Reuters he had proposed the arrangement to the United Nations, which has suggested resuming Russian ammonia across Ukraine to ease a global shortage of fertiliser.
"I am against supplying ammonia from the Russian Federation through our territory. I would only do it in exchange for our prisoners. This is what I offered the UN," he said in an interview at his presidential office.
The United Nations has proposed that ammonia gas owned by Russian fertiliser producer Uralchem be pumped by pipeline to the Ukrainian border, where it would be bought by the US-based commodities trader Trammo.
4:55pm: Russia bars more Australian journalists
Russia has barred another 41 Australian nationals from entering the country, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
Among the individuals added are journalists from Australia's Sky News, ABC, 7NEWS and Nine News, as well as arms industry executives.
4:10pm: Germany takes control of Russian energy subsidiaries
Berlin on Friday took control of the German operations of Russian oil firm Rosneft to secure energy supplies which have been disrupted after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
Rosneft's German subsidiaries, which account for about 12 percent of oil refining capacity in the country, were placed under trusteeship of the Federal Network Agency, the economy ministry said in a statement.
"The trust management will counter the threat to the security of energy supply," it said.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his government "did not take this action lightly but it was inevitable" for the "protection of our country".
The seizures come as Germany is scrambling to wean itself off its dependence on Russian fossil fuels, while Moscow has stopped natural gas deliveries to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
3:14pm: Indian PM tells Putin it's 'not a time for war'
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that now was "not a time for war" on Friday on the sidelines of a regional summit, television images showed.
"Excellency, I know today's time is not a time for war," Modi told Putin in Samarkand as the two leaders began their first face-to-face meeting since Moscow's forces invaded Ukraine, footage showed on Indian public service broadcaster Doordashan.
Putin told Modi that he wanted the conflict in Ukraine to end as soon as possible, but that Ukraine was set on achieving its objectives on the battlefield, according to an Indian TV translation of Putin's comments at a bilateral meeting.
2:32pm: Sanctions are hampering Russia's ability to make weapons, says NATO
Western sanctions are starting to hurt Russia's ability to make advanced weaponry for the war in Ukraine, a top NATO military adviser told Reuters on Friday, although he added Russian industry could still manufacture "a lot of ammunition".
The United States, the European Union and other countries announced several packages of sanctions against Moscow after its February 24 invasion of Ukraine, which included a ban on the sale of advanced technology.
“They are hampered more and more by the sanctions - because some of the components that they need for their weapons systems come from the Western industry," Rob Bauer, a Dutch Admiral who chairs NATO's Military Committee, said in an interview.
“We now see the first serious signs of that in terms of their ability to produce, for example, the replacement of cruise missiles and more advanced weaponry," he added.
2:14pm: Separatist prosecutor killed by blast in Lugansk
A blast in Ukraine's Russian-held city of Lugansk killed the separatist administration's top prosecutor and his deputy on Friday, pro-Moscow authorities said.
This is the latest of a series of targeted attacks against pro-Russian officials in occupied areas.
"Today, Prosecutor General Sergei Gorenko and his deputy Ekaterina Steglenko died as a result of a terrorist act," the press service of the leader of self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, said on Telegram.
Pasechnik said the attack that targeted the prosecutor's office "showed that Kyiv's regime had crossed all possible limits."
There were also reports of intensifying fire on the southern front of Kherson where the Ukrainian army has been claiming gains over the past few days.
Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, accused the Ukrainian army of striking Kherson city's administrative building, leaving one dead and one injured.
2:10pm: 10 'torture rooms' discovered in eastern Ukraine
Ukraine said Friday it had discovered at least 10 locations in territory recaptured from Russian forces in the east of the country that had been used for torture.
As Ukrainian troops have retaken swaths of territory in the north east, officials have said they feared discovering Russian war crimes in newly-liberated areas.
"I can talk about the presence of at least 10 torture centres in settlements" in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine's police chief Igor Klymenko said during a briefing, the Interfax news agency reported.
He said "two torture centres were found in Balakliya", a town in the northeast.
12:14pm: Most people buried in mass grave in Ukraine's Izium are civilians, says police chief
Most of the people buried in a mass grave discovered in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium are civilians, Ukraine's national police chief said on Friday, based on a preliminary estimate.
Earlier, authorities said they had found a mass grave containing 450 bodies in Izium, a former Russian frontline stronghold, and said this was proof of war crimes carried out by the invaders. Russia has not publicly commented on the matter.
Asked if the mass grave contained mainly civilians or soldiers, police chief Ihor Klymenko told a news conference: "On a preliminary estimate, civilians. Although we have information that there are troops there, we haven't recovered a single one yet."
11:49am: The recently de-occupied eastern town of Kupiansk receives aid and supplies
Ukrainian forces took back Kupiansk on September 10. Residents had been deprived of a phone connection and access to media for a long time. For some, the surprise of seeing Ukrainian forces arrive is clearly a huge relief. Gulliver Cragg, FRANCE 24's correspondent in Ukraine, reports from the ground.
11:57am: Erdogan urges end to war in Ukraine 'as soon as possible'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday told a regional summit attended by Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that he wanted the war in Ukraine to end "as soon as possible".
"We are making efforts to finalise the conflicts in Ukraine through diplomacy as soon as possible," Erdogan told the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan.
11:02am: UN rights team in Ukraine plans to visit collective grave site
A spokesperson for the UN human rights office said on Friday that it plans to send monitors to Izium, a Ukrainian city recaptured from Russian forces, where authorities say they have found a mass grave containing at least 440 bodies.
"They (monitors) are aiming to go there to try to establish a bit more about what may have happened," Liz Throssell told a Geneva press briefing, without giving a timeframe.
She said she could not confirm if the bodies were contained in one mass grave or in a series of individual graves.
10:20am: Ukraine official says '450 graves' found near recaptured Izium
"Four hundred and fifty graves... This is just one of the mass burial sites discovered near Izium. In the occupied territories, rampant terror, violence, torture and mass murders have been reigning for months," Mykhaylo Podolyak, a senior presidential aide said Friday
He published a photo on social media showing rows of wooden crosses and recently dug mounds in a wooded area along with the claim.
The statement comes after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening address to the nation that a "mass grave" had been discovered near Izium.
As Douglas Herbert, FRANCE 24's international affairs commentator, notes, "we should hardly be shocked by this, if we are to take the Ukrainians at their word. Each time these types of mass burial sites are discovered, they [the Ukrainians] say 'this is the thin end of the wedge'; 'there is a lot more of this to come; 'we should not be surprised'.
9:16am: NATO's Stoltenberg says Ukrainian counter-attack 'effective', not end of war
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday Ukraine's counter-attack against Russian troops had been very effective but warned nations should prepare for the long haul, as this did not signal the beginning of the end of the war.
"It is of course extremely encouraging to see that Ukrainian armed forces have been able to take back territory and also strike behind Russian lines," Stoltenberg told BBC radio.
"At the same time, we need to understand that this is not the beginning of the end of the war, we need to be prepared for the long haul."
8:26am: Germany takes control of Russian firm Rosneft's operations in the country
Berlin said Friday it had taken control of the German operations of Russian firm Rosneft to secure energy supplies which have been disrupted after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
Rosneft's German subsidiaries, which account for about 12 percent of oil refining capacity in the country, were placed under trusteeship of the Federal Network Agency, the economy ministry said in a statement.
"The trust management will counter the threat to the security of energy supply," it said.
The move covers the companies Rosneft Deutschland GmbH (RDG) and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH (RNRM) as well as three refineries: PCK Schwedt, MiRo and Bayernoil.
The refineries' operations had been disrupted as the German government decided to slash Russian oil imports, with an aim to halt them completely by year's end. By taking control of the sites, the German authorities can then run the refining operations using crude from countries other than Russia.
6:48am: Biden and South African leader to discuss Ukraine, trade, climate
US President Joe Biden and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are set to meet Friday at the White House for talks on Russia's war in Ukraine, climate issues, trade and more.
Ramaphosa is among African leaders who have maintained a neutral stance in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with South Africa abstaining from a United Nations vote condemning Russia’s actions and calling for a mediated settlement.
South Africa’s international relations minister, Naledi Pandor, said Ramaphosa would emphasise the need for dialogue to find an end to the conflict during his meeting with Biden and in separate talks with Vice President Kamala Harris.
3:30am: US sends new military aid to Ukraine
US President Joe Biden announced a new $600 million arms package to help the Ukrainian military battle Russia, according to a White House memo sent to the State Department on Thursday.
Biden authorised the assistance using his Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the president to sanction the transfer of excess weapons from U.S. stocks.
The package includes High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), night vision goggles, claymore mines, mine clearing equipment, 105mm artillery rounds and 155mm precision guided artillery rounds, the Pentagon said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
