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Putin Says Russia Advancing Fast - by Kilometers - in Eastern Ukraine

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with schoolchildren as he visits a secondary comprehensive school in Kyzyl on September 2, 2024, on the first day of the new school year, known as the Knowledge Day. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Pool / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with schoolchildren as he visits a secondary comprehensive school in Kyzyl on September 2, 2024, on the first day of the new school year, known as the Knowledge Day. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Pool / AFP)
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Putin Says Russia Advancing Fast - by Kilometers - in Eastern Ukraine

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with schoolchildren as he visits a secondary comprehensive school in Kyzyl on September 2, 2024, on the first day of the new school year, known as the Knowledge Day. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Pool / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with schoolchildren as he visits a secondary comprehensive school in Kyzyl on September 2, 2024, on the first day of the new school year, known as the Knowledge Day. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Pool / AFP)

Russian forces are advancing faster in eastern Ukraine than they have done for a long time, taking several square kilometers per day, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday as Moscow's forces tried to smash through a major Ukrainian defensive line.

Russian forces, which control 18% of Ukraine, have been advancing in eastern Ukraine since the failure of Kyiv's 2023 counter-offensive to achieve a major breakthrough.

Despite a major Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region that began on Aug. 6, the numerically stronger Russian army has in recent weeks been thrusting relatively swiftly though settlements in eastern Ukraine on the approach to the strategically important city of Pokrovsk.

"We have not had such a pace in the offensive in Donbas (region) for a long time," Putin told children at Secondary School No. 20 in Kyzyl, Tuva, about 4,500 km (2,800 miles) east of Moscow.

"Now we are not talking about moving 200 or 300 meters (660 or 1,000 feet) forward ... The Russian armed forces are already bringing territories under control not by 200-300 meters but by square kilometers."

Pro-Russian military bloggers said on Monday that Russian forces were now fighting in the eastern Ukrainian towns of Selydove and Ukrainsk. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the reported Russian advance.

Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, said that intense battles were underway in Selydove, about 20 km (12 miles) south of Pokrovsk, and in Ukrainsk, about 14 km (nine miles) south of Selydove.

He said both sides were pushing forces into the battles for the towns, which had populations of over 20,000 and 10,000 respectively before full-scale war began in February 2022.

The pro-Russian blogger Rybar also said that fighting was going on in both towns. Russian state news agency TASS said that Ukrainian forces had been driven out of a part of Selydove.

By pushing south towards the town of Kurakhivka, Russian forces are seeking to break through Ukrainian defensive lines while increasing their sway over the Pokrovsk-Donetsk road and encircling a chunk of territory, Russian bloggers said.

Russia has been trying to expel Ukrainian forces from its southern Kursk region after Kyiv's Aug. 6 incursion, which was designed partly to pressure Russian generals to scramble forces from other parts of the eastern front in Ukraine.

Russian forces have taken control of the village of Skuchne in the eastern Donetsk region, RIA news agency cited Russia's Defense Ministry as saying on Monday.

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World

EU to Slash Asylum Cases from 7 Nations Deemed Safe

FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
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EU to Slash Asylum Cases from 7 Nations Deemed Safe

FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)

The European Union on Thursday said it would drastically reduce asylum claims from seven nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia by considering them safe countries of origin, prompting widespread outrage from human rights groups on International Migrants' Day.

An agreement between European Parliament and the European Council, or the group of the 27 EU heads of state, said that the countries would be considered safe if they lack “relevant circumstances, such as indiscriminate violence in the context of an armed conflict.”

Asylum requests by people from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco and Tunisia will be "fast-tracked, with applicants having to prove that this provision should not apply to them,” read the announcement of the agreement. “The list can be expanded in the future under the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure.”

In 2024, EU nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system. The rules were meant to resolve the issues that have divided the 27 countries since well over 1 million migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq.

Under the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which goes into force in June 2026, people can be sent to countries deemed safe, but not to those where they face the risk of physical harm or persecution.

According to The Associated Press, Amnesty International EU advocate Olivia Sundberg Diez said the new measures were “a shameless attempt to sidestep international legal obligations" and would endanger migrants.

French MEP Mélissa Camara said the safe countries of origins concept and others agreed to by the Council and Parliament “opens the door to return hubs outside the EU’s borders, where third-country nationals are sometimes subjected to inhumane treatment with almost no monitoring” and “undoubtedly places thousands of people in exile in situations of danger.”

Céline Mias, the EU director of the Danish Refugee Council said that "we are deeply worried that this fast-track system will fail to protect people in need of protection, including activists, journalists and marginalized groups in places where human rights are clearly under attack.”

Alessandro Ciriani, an Italian MEP with the European Conservatives and Reformists group, said the designation sends a firm message that the EU has toughened its borders.

“Europe wants enforceable rules and shared responsibility. Now this commitment must become operational: effective returns, structured cooperation with third countries and real measures to support EU member states,” he said.

He said that clear delineations of safe and unsafe nations would rid the EU of “excessive interpretative uncertainty” that led to a kind of paralysis for national decision makers over border controls.

The measures also allows individual nations within the bloc to designate other countries safe for their own immigration purposes.

World

Rubio Says US Sanctioning ICC Judges for Targeting Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)
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Rubio Says US Sanctioning ICC Judges for Targeting Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the US was sanctioning two judges of the International Criminal Court for targeting Israel.

"Today, I am designating two International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, Gocha Lordkipanidze of Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia, pursuant to Executive Order 14203," Rubio said in a statement, referring to the order President Donald Trump signed in February sanctioning the ICC, Reuters reported.

"These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent," he said.

The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC.

The US sanctions in February include freezing any US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.

World

US Imposes Sanctions on Vessels Linked to Iran, Treasury Website Says

A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
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US Imposes Sanctions on Vessels Linked to Iran, Treasury Website Says

A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on 29 vessels and their management firms, the Treasury Department said, as Washington continues targeting Tehran's "shadow fleet" it says exports Iranian petroleum and petroleum products, Reuters reported.

The targeted vessels and companies have transported hundreds of millions of dollars of the products through deceptive shipping practices, Treasury said.

Thursday's action also targets businessman Hatem Elsaid Farid Ibrahim Sakr, whose companies are associated with seven of the vessels cited, as well as multiple shipping companies.