TOP HEADLINES

· About 450 graves were counted at one burial site near the eastern Ukraine city of Izyum which was recently recaptured by Kyiv's forces, a senior presidential aide said. "This is just one of the mass burial sites discovered near Izyum. In the occupied territories, rampant terror, violence, torture and mass murders have been reigning for months," Mykhaylo Podolyak said. The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights' office said it wanted to send a team to Izyum to verify Ukrainian allegations. READ MORE BELOW

· Authorities in Kryvyi Rih are working to repair the damage to a reservoir dam from Russian missile strikes and as a result water levels are receding, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential administration. 

· Ukrainian forces repelled three Russian attacks north of the eastern city of Donetsk, the armed forces' general staff said on Facebook. Sea-based missiles also targeted areas of the Odesa port region but were destroyed by anti-aircraft units.

· Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a regional summit attended by Putin that he wanted the war in Ukraine to end "as soon as possible". "We are making efforts to finalize the conflicts in Ukraine through diplomacy as soon as possible," Erdogan told the meeting of the SCO in Uzbekistan.

· Ukraine has lost nearly 15 percent of its grain storage capacity during the conflict with Russia, threatening its role as a key food supplier to the world, a new report said. The U.S. government-backed Conflict Observatory said Russians had seized 6.24 million tonnes' worth of food storage capacity, and that another 2.25 million tonnes of capacity in Ukrainian hands had been destroyed. READ MORE BELOW

· The UN nuclear agency's board of governors asked Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, two diplomats said, a move immediately praised by Ukraine. The withdrawal of Russian troops from the power plant it has occupied since March has been a longstanding demand from Kyiv, which fears a nuclear disaster if shelling continues around the plant.

· EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she wants Russian President Vladimir Putin to face the International Criminal Court over war crimes in Ukraine. "That Putin must lose this war and must face up to his actions, that is important to me," she told the TV channel of German news outlet Bild. There was no doubt that war crimes had been committed in Ukraine, said von der Leyen, who also visited Kyiv on Thursday.

· The White House approved a new package of up to $600 million in additional military aid for Ukraine, as Washington moves to support Kyiv's counteroffensive against Russia's troops. The aid consists of equipment and services, as well as training, the executive branch said in a statement.

· The U.S. slapped sanctions on a long list of Russian officials and companies, ramping up pressure over the offensive in Ukraine and hoping to hobble any attempt to rebuild its heavily damaged defense sector. Top officials overseeing Russian securities markets operations, a neo-Nazi fighter group, Russian and pro-Russian officials in occupied parts of Ukraine, and a children's rights official who allegedly directs the removal of Ukrainian children to Russia were all named in the U.S. sanctions blacklist.

· Berlin will provide Ukraine with more armored vehicles and rocket launch systems but not the battle tanks sought by Kyiv for its counter-offensive against Russia, Germany's defense minister said. 

IN DETAIL

'Mass grave' discovered near Izyum

About 450 graves were counted at one burial site near the eastern Ukraine city of Izyum which was recently recaptured by Kyiv's forces, a senior Ukrainian presidential aide told reporters.

"Four hundred and fifty graves... This is just one of the mass burial sites discovered near Izyum. In the occupied territories, rampant terror, violence, torture and mass murders have been reigning for months," Mykhaylo Podolyak said.

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 Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation that a "mass grave" had been discovered near Izyum.

But he did not give details about the number of bodies that had been discovered or any indication whether they were civilians or military personnel, or the cause of any of the deaths.

Russia has been accused of carrying out attacks on civilians that amount to possible war crimes, particularly in towns outside the capital of Kyiv.

There has been no independent verification of the claims.

IN DETAIL

'Indiscriminate targeting of crop storage infrastructure a war crime'

Ukraine has lost nearly 15 percent of its grain storage capacity during the conflict with Russia, threatening its role as a key food supplier to the world, a new report said.

The U.S. government-backed Conflict Observatory said Russians had seized 6.24 million tonnes' worth of food storage capacity, and that another 2.25 million tonnes of capacity in Ukrainian hands had been destroyed.

In total, the war has removed around 8.5 million of Ukraine's 58-million-tonne storage capacity, threatening the country's future ability to get crucial supplies of wheat, corn and sunflower oil to the world market, according to the report.

As a result, farmers are running out of room to store their output for shipment, which could discourage plantings for the next crop, especially winter wheat, the report said.

"Russia and Russia-aligned forces' damage and seizure of Ukrainian crop storage capacity threatens to turn Ukraine's current agricultural crisis into catastrophe," the report said.

"Millions of people around the world rely on Ukrainian agricultural products and are directly impacted by price spikes in global commodities markets caused by shortages linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine."

The report used satellite photography and object detection algorithms to assess the damage of storage facilities such as silos and grain elevators across Ukraine.

It noted that even partial damage at a facility can spoil stored crops.

Most of the captured and damaged facilities are in Mykolayiv, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk Oblast, and the largest parts were near transportation hubs, suggesting they were damaged in deliberately targeted attacks.

"Indiscriminate targeting of crop storage infrastructure can constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity under international law," the report said.