TOP HEADLINES

· Russian President Vladimir Putin said 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 although he would later tell India's leader Narendra Modi, "we will end it as soon as possible." READ MORE BELOW

· Modi told Putin that now was "not a time for war" on the sidelines of a regional summit. In their first face-to-face meeting since Moscow's forces entered Ukraine in February, Modi told Putin: "Excellency, I know today's time is not a time for war." To which Putin replied, "I know your position on the conflict in Ukraine, your concerns... We will do our best to end this as soon as possible."

· President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lashed out at Russia as officials began exhuming bodies from a mass burial site discovered when Kyiv's forces recaptured the east Ukrainian town of Izyum. "Russia leaves only death and suffering. Murderers. Torturers," Zelensky said in a statement on social media, adding that more than 400 bodies discovered in forests near Izyum included children and people who likely had been tortured. Moscow has not commented on the discovery of the grave.

· The head of a pro-Russian administration pushed out by the counteroffensive, Vitaly Ganchev, accused Ukrainians of staging atrocities in the city of Izyum. United Nations human rights monitors will go to Izyum "to try to establish a bit more about what may have happened", a spokesperson said.

· Western leaders voiced revulsion and outrage after Ukraine found a mass grave outside the formerly Russian-occupied city of Izyum and said that almost all of the exhumed bodies showed signs of torture. Officials counted 450 hastily dug graves, some marked by rough wooden crosses at the site in a pine forest only recently recaptured by Ukrainian fighters. READ MORE BELOW

· U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia was behaving "horrifically" and was likely responsible for war crimes after the discovery and hailed what he saw as pressure on Moscow from China and India. 

· A blast in Ukraine's Russian-held city of Luhansk killed the separatist administration's top prosecutor and his deputy, pro-Moscow authorities said, while other attacks were reported in the south. 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 Luhansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, said on Telegram.

· Zelenskyy told Reuters news agency he would only back the idea of reopening Russian ammonia exports through Ukraine if Moscow handed back prisoners of war, an idea the Kremlin quickly rejected. 

· UN member states voted to make an exception to allow Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address next week's General Assembly by video, despite Russian opposition. Of the 193 member states, 101 voted in favor of allowing Zelenskyy to "present a pre-recorded statement" instead of in-person as usually required. 

· Mexico will present a peace plan for Ukraine to the United Nations General Assembly next week, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said. The proposal is for Pope Francis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to form a dialogue and peace committee, he said. "It's a matter of urgently seeking an agreement to stop the war in Ukraine," Lopez Obrador said.

· Ukraine's foreign minister has renewed criticism of Germany for failing to send tanks to help fight Russian forces, saying new weapons pledged by Berlin were "not what we need most". Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the German decisions were a "mystery", and that there was a "weapon wall" in Berlin that Chancellor Olaf Scholz had to tear down.

· Russia is encountering difficulties in the global expansion of its payment system set up to circumvent Ukraine-related sanctions, the head of the Russia's central bank said. Visa and Mastercard suspended their operations in Russia following the Ukraine offensive, meaning foreign-issued cards no longer worked there and cards issued in Russia no longer worked abroad. Bank transfers between Europe and Russia have become difficult too. 

IN DETAIL

Izyum: '99 percent of the bodies showed signs of violent death'

Western leaders voiced revulsion and outrage after Ukraine found a mass grave outside the formerly Russian-occupied city of Izyum and said that almost all of the exhumed bodies showed signs of torture.

Officials counted 450 hastily dug graves, some marked by rough wooden crosses at the site in a pine forest only recently recaptured by Ukrainian fighters.

"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.

"Russia leaves only death and suffering. Murderers. Torturers," said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Some of the remains exhumed included children and people who were likely tortured before dying, he added.

The European Union is "deeply shocked" at the newest discovery of a mass grave left by the Russians in the nearly seven-month-old war, said the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

"This inhuman behavior by the Russian forces, in total disregard of international humanitarian law and the Geneva conventions, must stop immediately," he said in a statement.

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the graves likely provided more evidence that Russia is committing war crimes in its pro-Western neighbor, and French President Emmanuel Macron said what happened in Izyum were atrocities.

"I condemn in the strongest terms the atrocities committed in Izyum, Ukraine, under Russian occupation," Macron tweeted.

Those responsible "will have to answer for their acts. There is no peace without justice," he added.

Putin: 'The plan is not subject to adjustment'

Russian President Vladimir Putin said 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."

However, when warned by India's Narendra Modi that now was "not a time for war" on the sidelines of the regional summit, Putin replied, "I know your position on the conflict in Ukraine, your concerns... We will do our best to end this as soon as possible."

Putin said Russia was "not fighting with a full army" but only contract soldiers, and said the main goal of the campaign remained "the liberation of the entire territory of Donbas."

He accused Ukrainian forces of attempts to carry out "terrorist acts" and damage Russian civilian infrastructure.

"We are really quite restrained in our response to this, for the time being," Putin said. "If the situation continues to develop in this way, the response will be more serious."