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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his government would present a plan to the United Nations to end Russia's war in Ukraine, moments after criticizing the world body and calling for it to be reformed, Reuters reported.
Lopez Obrador, who expounds on the virtues of a non-interventionist foreign policy, said his plan involves the creation of a "mediation committee" that includes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Pope Francis.
Modi in May called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and peace talks between the Kyiv government and Russia, which invaded its neighbor on February 24.
Under Lopez Obrador's plan, the mediators would immediately start talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy to achieve "a truce of at least five years."
The plan was scant on other details, but Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference he will discuss it further in a speech celebrating Mexico's independence on Friday.
"I'm going to talk about world peace and I'm going to talk about Mexico's position on the war in Russia and Ukraine, and I am going to present a proposal to the United Nations to achieve peace," Lopez Obrador said.
The war has displaced millions, killed thousands of civilians and left cities, towns and villages in ruins.
Russia has largely ceded its gains near Kharkiv and many of the withdrawing Russian soldiers have exited Ukraine, moving over the border back into Russia, a senior U.S. military official said, Reuters reported.
As it pulls back, the United States has seen anecdotal reports of Russian forces abandoning their equipment, "which could be indicative of Russia's disorganized command and control," the U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The remarks to Pentagon reporters followed a weekend of rapid gains for Ukrainian forces. Ukraine's general staff said its soldiers had recaptured more than 20 towns and villages in just the past day, as Ukrainian forces swept deeper into territory seized from fleeing Russian troops.
The U.S. military official was upbeat, but cautious, when describing the Ukrainian advances.
"It's clear they're fighting hard," the official said, citing progress in the south and east to reclaim territory.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces had retaken 6,000 square kilometers (2,400 square miles) of Russian-held territory since the beginning of the month, according to Reuters.
"Since the beginning of September and up to today, our fighters have liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine in the south and in the east," Zelenskiyy said in his nightly video. "The advances of our forces continue."
Ukrainian chief commander General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Sunday his troops had retaken more than 3,000 square kilometers (1,160 square miles) this month.
In his , Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “Yesterday and today, the Russian army struck the Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians found themselves in the dark -- without electricity. Houses, hospitals, schools, communal infrastructure... Russian missiles hit precisely those objects that have absolutely nothing to do with the infrastructure of the Armed Forces of our country.
“On the one hand, this is a sign of the desperation of those who invented this war. This is how they react to the defeat of Russian troops in the Kharkiv region. They can't do anything to our heroes on the battlefield, and that's why Russia is directing its vile strikes against civilian infrastructure,” he said. “On the other hand, Russia is trying to prevent us from directing Ukraine's capabilities in such a way as to stabilize the situation in Europe. Our electricity export is something that Russia is very afraid of right now. Because we can disrupt Russian plans to empty the pockets of Europeans this winter due to crazy energy prices.”
He's been blacklisted in Russia as a "foreign agent," but legendary rocker Andrei Makarevich says he won't be silenced for condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. at the Starmus Festival in the Armenian capital, Makarevich said the Kremlin's campaign to punish anti-war critics was "absolutely stupid."
The World Health Organization expects a rise in COVID-19 in Ukraine to peak in October, possibly bringing hospitals close to their capacity threshold, WHO's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said,