Kyiv Calls for ‘Ban’ on Russians as Moscow Steps up Assault in Eastern Ukraine

A woman regards a part of a Russian armored military vehicle that was destroyed in fights with the Ukrainian army, displayed in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, 09 August 2022. (EPA)
A woman regards a part of a Russian armored military vehicle that was destroyed in fights with the Ukrainian army, displayed in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, 09 August 2022. (EPA)
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Kyiv Calls for ‘Ban’ on Russians as Moscow Steps up Assault in Eastern Ukraine

A woman regards a part of a Russian armored military vehicle that was destroyed in fights with the Ukrainian army, displayed in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, 09 August 2022. (EPA)
A woman regards a part of a Russian armored military vehicle that was destroyed in fights with the Ukrainian army, displayed in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, 09 August 2022. (EPA)

Ukraine's president called on the West to impose a blanket travel ban on Russians, an idea that has found support among some European states but angered Moscow which pressed on with a fierce military offensive in eastern Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's idea looked likely to divide the European Union, where differences on how to deal with Moscow have long persisted between some eastern and western members.

It came as Ukraine halted flows of Russian oil to some eastern European countries due to a sanctions-related payment issue.

Zelenskiy's call for a one-year travel ban and the apparent expulsion of Russians living in the West so that they could live "in their own world until they change their philosophy" was made in an interview with the Washington Post.

He complained that sanctions imposed so far on Russia to punish it for invading his country on Feb. 24 were too weak.

"Whichever kind of Russian ... make them go to Russia,” Zelenskiy was quoted as saying. "They’ll understand then. "They'll say, 'This (war) has nothing to do with us. The whole population can't be held responsible, can it?' It can."

Zelenskiy was quoted as saying the ban should also extend to Russians who had fled since the start of what Moscow calls a "special military operation" because they disagreed with President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin dismissed Zelenskiy's words as irrational, saying that Europe would ultimately have to decide if it wanted to pay the bills for his "whims".

"Any attempt to isolate Russia or Russians is a process that has no prospects," said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Other senior Russian officials have questioned the legality such restrictions, suggesting they would infringe Russians' rights.

Halt EU visas for Russians?

There was support though from Kaja Kallas, Estonia's prime minister, who said she thought it was time for the EU to stop issuing visas to Russians. "Visiting #Europe is a privilege, not a human right," Kallas tweeted.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Monday that she also favored an EU-wide curb on Russian tourism and that EU leaders were likely to discuss the issue at their next summit.

"It is not right that while Russia is conducting an aggressive and cruel attack in Europe, Russians can live a kind of normal life, travel in Europe, be tourists," Marin told Finnish public broadcaster Yle.

While Finland still issues Schengen visas to Russian tourists, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania no longer do. The Schengen area comprises 26 European countries among which people can travel freely without presenting passports.

Latvia has said it also favors an EU-wide ban.

Other countries which have traditionally enjoyed closer ties to Russia such as Hungary are, however, likely to oppose an EU ban. Moreover, the European Commission has questioned its feasibility, saying certain categories such as family members, journalists and dissidents should always be granted visas.

Eastern offensive

Russia meanwhile unleashed ground forces, air strikes and artillery in a grinding offensive designed to complete its capture of eastern Ukraine.

But Kyiv said its troops were putting up fierce resistance and largely holding the line.

Heavy fighting was reported on Tuesday in frontline towns near the eastern city of Donetsk, where Ukrainian officials said Russian troops were launching waves of attacks as they tried to expand their control of the industrialized Donbas region.

The Ukrainian military said it had repelled ground assaults in the direction of the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

Russia gave a different assessment.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov claimed his forces had captured a factory for Moscow on the edge of the eastern town of Soledar. Other Russian-backed forces said they were in the process of "clearing out" the heavily fortified village of Pisky. And Russian media reported that a group of mercenaries from the Wagner Group had dug in near the city of Bakhmut.

Reuters could not verify either side's battlefield accounts.

British military intelligence, which is helping Ukraine, said Russia's push towards Bakhmut had been its most successful operation in the Donbas in the last 30 days, but that it had still only managed to advance around 10 km (6 miles).

Russian forces in other areas had not gained more than 3 km over the same period, British military intelligence said.

Russia has said it plans to seize full control of the Donbas on behalf of pro-Kremlin separatist forces, while Russian-installed officials in parts of southern Ukraine have said they plan to press ahead with referendums to join Russia.

Ukraine, which says Russia is prosecuting an unprovoked imperial-style war of aggression, is banking on sophisticated Western-supplied rocket and artillery systems to degrade Russian supply lines and logistics.

In the Crimean Peninsula, whose annexation by Russia in 2014 was followed by separatist seizures of parts of the Donbas, an explosion at the Saky military air base killed one person and injured five, local Russian authorities said.

The Russian defense ministry said earlier the blast had been a detonation of aviation ammunition, not the result of an attack.



Israel Targets Iran's Defense Ministry Headquarters as Tehran Unleashes Deadly Missile Strike

Rescue personnel work at a residential building following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at central Israel June 15, 2025.  REUTERS/Yossi Zeliger
Rescue personnel work at a residential building following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at central Israel June 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yossi Zeliger
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Israel Targets Iran's Defense Ministry Headquarters as Tehran Unleashes Deadly Missile Strike

Rescue personnel work at a residential building following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at central Israel June 15, 2025.  REUTERS/Yossi Zeliger
Rescue personnel work at a residential building following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at central Israel June 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yossi Zeliger

Israel launched an expanded assault on Iran on Sunday, targeting its energy industry and Defense Ministry headquarters, while Tehran unleashed a fresh barrage of deadly strikes.

The simultaneous attacks represented the latest burst of violence since a surprise offensive by Israel two days earlier aimed at decimating Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, said The Associated Press.

New explosions boomed across Tehran as Iranian missiles entered Israel’s skies in attacks that Israeli emergency officials said caused deaths around the country, including four in an apartment building in the Galilee region. A strike in central Israel killed an 80-year-old woman, a 69-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy, officials said.

Casualty figures weren’t immediately available in Iran, where Israel targeted its Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran as well as sites that it alleged were associated with the country's nuclear program. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed that Iranian missiles targeted fuel production facilities for Israeli fighter jets, something not acknowledged by Israel.

Amid the continued conflict, planned negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear program were cancelled, throwing into question when and how an end to the fighting could come.

“Tehran is burning," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on social media.

Both Israel’s military and Iran state television announced the latest round of Iranian missiles as explosions were heard near midnight, while the Israeli security cabinet met.

Israel's ongoing strikes across Iran have left the country's surviving leadership with the difficult decision of whether to plunge deeper into conflict with Israel’s more powerful forces or seek a diplomatic route.

Urgent calls to deescalate

World leaders made urgent calls to deescalate and avoid all-out war. The attack on nuclear sites set a “dangerous precedent,” China's foreign minister said. The region is already on edge as Israel makes a new push to eliminate the Iranian-backed group Hamas in Gaza after 20 months of fighting.

Israel — widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East — said its hundreds of strikes on Iran over the past two days have killed a number of top generals, nine senior scientists and experts involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s UN ambassador has said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded.

US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency have repeatedly said Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon before Israel unleashed its campaign of airstrikes targeting Iran beginning Friday. But Iran's uranium enrichment has reached near weapons-grade levels, and on Thursday the UN’s atomic watchdog censured Iran for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program his top priority, said Israel's strikes so far are "nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.”

In what could be another escalation if confirmed, semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported an Israeli drone struck and caused a “strong explosion” at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant. It would be the first Israeli attack on Iran’s oil and natural gas industry. Israel's military did not immediately comment.

The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air defense systems around them, which Israel has been targeting.

Iran calls nuclear talks ‘unjustifiable’ The sixth round of US-Iran indirect talks on Sunday over Iran ’s nuclear program will not take place, mediator Oman said. “We remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon,” said a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomacy.

Iran’s top diplomat said Saturday the nuclear talks were “unjustifiable” after Israel's strikes. Abbas Araghchi's comments came during a call with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat.

The Israeli airstrikes were the “result of the direct support by Washington,” Araghchi said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. The US has said it isn’t part of the strikes.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump urged Iran to reach a deal with the US on its nuclear program, adding that "Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left.”

US helps to shoot down Iranian missiles

Iran launched its first waves of missiles at Israel late Friday and early Saturday. The attacks killed at least three people and wounded 174, two of them seriously, Israel said. The military said seven soldiers were lightly wounded when a missile hit central Israel, without specifying where.

US ground-based air defense systems in the region were helping to shoot down Iranian missiles, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the measures.

Israel’s main international airport said it will remain closed until further notice.

First responders were looking for survivors and clearing the remnants of a missile that fell on a neighborhood outside of Tel Aviv early Sunday morning.

An Associated Press reporter saw streets lined with damaged and destroyed buildings, bombed out cars and shards of glass.

Responders used a drone at points to look for survivors in some of the areas that were too hard to access. Some people were fleeing the area with their belongings in suitcases.

‘More than a few weeks’ to repair nuclear facilities Israel attacked Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. Satellite photos analyzed by AP show extensive damage there. The images shot Saturday by Planet Labs PBC show multiple buildings damaged or destroyed. The structures hit include buildings identified by experts as supplying power to the facility.

UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged infrastructure there, he said.

Israel said it also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan, including “infrastructure for enriched uranium conversion,” and said it destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Iran confirmed the strike at Isfahan.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said four “critical buildings” at the Isfahan site were damaged, including its uranium conversion facility. “As in Natanz, no increase in off-site radiation expected,” it added.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official procedures, said that according to the army's initial assessment “it will take much more than a few weeks” for Iran to repair the damage to the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. The official said the army had “concrete intelligence that production in Isfahan was for military purposes.”

Israel denied it had struck the nuclear enrichment facility in Fordo, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Tehran.

Among those killed were three of Iran’s top military leaders: one who oversaw the entire armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; one who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami; and the head of the Guard’s aerospace division, which oversees its arsenal of ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh. On Saturday, Khamenei named a new leader for the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division: Gen. Majid Mousavi.