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Russian Troops Push into Ukraine’s Sumy Region

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
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Russian Troops Push into Ukraine’s Sumy Region

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia said on Sunday that its troops had taken the village of Basivka in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, and were battering Ukrainian forces at a host of settlements in the area.

More than two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv sent thousands of troops over the border into Russia's Kursk region in August last year though a Russian offensive over recent months has pushed most of Ukrainian forces out of Kursk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested that Russian forces carve out a buffer zone along the border.

Russia's defense ministry said that it had taken the village of Basivka, just over the border from Sudzha, and had struck Ukrainian forces at 12 other points in the Sumy region.

Ukrainian officials later denied the report, saying Russian forces were not in control of Basivka.

"As of today, the Russians do not control Basivka in Sumy region. They are trying to run in there in assault groups and look for cellars in order to gain a foothold, but the enemy is being destroyed," Andriy Kovalenko, an official of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said on Telegram messenger.

"The fighting in the Sumy region border area is complex and continues daily in several areas, and is also taking place in the Kursk border area," he added.

Russia's defense ministry also said that Russia had defeated Ukrainian units in the Russian settlements of Gornal, Guevo and Oleshnya.

The pro-Ukrainian DeepState war map shows Ukraine in control of about 63 square kilometers (24 square miles) of Russian territory, down from as much as 1,400 square kilometers claimed by Kyiv last year.

Another 81 square kilometers of territory along the border - including Basivka - is classed by DeepState as of "unknown" control.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014, and most but not all of four other regions which Moscow now claims are part of Russia - a claim not recognized by most countries.

Russia controls all of Crimea, almost all of Luhansk, and more than 70% of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. It also controls a sliver of Kharkiv region.

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World

India Rolls Out Red Carpet for Russia's Putin

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi look out from a car prior to an informal dinner at Modi's residence. Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL/AFP
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi look out from a car prior to an informal dinner at Modi's residence. Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL/AFP
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India Rolls Out Red Carpet for Russia's Putin

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi look out from a car prior to an informal dinner at Modi's residence. Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL/AFP
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi look out from a car prior to an informal dinner at Modi's residence. Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL/AFP

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosts Russia's President Vladimir Putin at a summit on Friday, with defense and trade ties taking center stage as New Delhi faces heavy US pressure to stop buying Moscow's oil.

Both leaders will also discuss the geopolitical situation in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and global trade disruptions triggered by tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, said AFP.

Big ticket defense sales and co-production ventures, energy purchases, and wider economic engagement are on the agenda, Putin's first visit to India since the Ukraine war.

Modi welcomed Putin at the airport on Thursday with a warm hug on a red carpet, before the two rode together in the same car to a private dinner -- mirroring a lift that Putin gave Modi when they last met in China in September.

"India-Russia friendship is a time-tested one that has greatly benefitted our people," Modi wrote in a post on social media, accompanying a photograph of them grinning together inside the vehicle.

It was a symbolic show of friendship, after US President Donald Trump imposed 50-percent tariffs on most Indian products in August, citing Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil -- revenue Washington argues helps fund the war in Ukraine.

In an interview with India Today, Putin said he was "very happy" to be meeting "my friend" Modi.

"The range of our cooperation with India is huge," he said in remarks translated by the broadcaster, citing ship and aircraft manufacturing, nuclear energy and space exploration.

"This visit is part of India's diversification strategy, both in terms of strategic and economic, especially at a time when the US tariffs have hurt India," Ashok Malik of business consultancy The Asia Group told AFP.

On Friday, Putin is due to be given an honor guard welcome at the presidential palace in New Delhi, before meeting with Modi.

'Balancing acts'

India is walking a diplomatic tightrope -- relying on strategic Russian oil imports while trying not to provoke Trump during ongoing tariff negotiations.

"Balancing acts are second nature to Indian foreign policy making", wrote Pankaj Saran, a former Indian envoy to Russia, writing in the Times of India.

The leaders will also address business and industry leaders before Putin attends a state banquet hosted by the Indian President Droupadi Murmu.

India, the world's most populous nation, has become a major buyer of Russian oil, saving itself billions of dollars and providing Moscow with a much-needed export market after it was cut off from traditional buyers in Europe because of the war.

Putin also told India Today that Modi is "not someone who gives in to pressure", when asked about the impact of US tariffs.

The Russian share of India's arms imports fell from 76 percent in 2009-13 to 36 percent in 2019-23, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Besides discussions around cutting-edge defense hardware, which includes air defense systems, fighter jets, and nuclear submarines, New Delhi will push for easier access to the wider Russian market.

Bilateral trade reached $68.7 billion in 2024-25 -- almost six times higher than the pre-pandemic levels -- but Indian exports accounted for only $4.88 billion.

The two countries are expected to announce an agreement on easier mobility of Indian workers into Russia.

World

Iran Accused of ‘Digital Apartheid’

03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa
03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa
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Iran Accused of ‘Digital Apartheid’

03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa
03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa

Ordinary Iranians face up to 10 years in prison or even execution if they use X to write anything the government deems critical.

But little did they know that government officials and regime supporters have been using the social media site, which is banned inside Iran, Britain’s The Telegraph reported.

This practice has been revealed after Elon Musk’s X rolled out an update that displays each user’s location.

It has exposed government ministers, state media figures, political officials and pro-regime accounts as having accessed the banned platform from within Iran using special white SIM cards.

The new X location feature was designed to spot fake accounts but instead has lifted the curtain on the divide in Iran, one of the world’s most censored countries, according to the newspaper.

Critics of the regime have termed the online divide a form of “digital apartheid”, with only certain groups able to access the internet freely.

Ordinary Iranians are forced to use VPNs, which conceal their true location, to get around the ban. If they are caught posting on X they are reprimanded by Iranian authorities, and if those posts are anti-Iran or pro-Israel, they face execution or prison sentences.

Meanwhile, state and pro-regime accounts use the white SIM cards in their phones to receive unrestricted access to the internet and bypass their own restrictions.

Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, an Iranian politician who serves on the national security commission, criticized their use.

Ardestani said: “Many people want filtering to exist because they want to sell VPNs and do business.”

He added that the VPN market, used by ordinary Iranians, has high financial turnover and is controlled by “a mafia”.

If users access X through VPNs, the location shows the country where their server is located rather than their actual location.

Other banned platforms in Iran include Facebook, YouTube and Telegram.

“This is obvious discrimination in public rights and against the explicit text of the constitution,” one Iranian citizen told The Telegraph, referring to Iran’s constitutional guarantee of equality among citizens.

“When you yourself use white SIM cards, how can we expect you to understand the pain of filtering? How can we expect you to fight to remove it?” another Iranian said.

Among those whose locations were displayed were communications minister Sattar Hashemi, former foreign minister Javad Zarif, government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajerani and dozens of journalists working for state-aligned media outlets.

Also exposed were political figures, eulogists who praise the Iranian regime at official events, and accounts that had claimed online to be opposition voices, including some monarchist and separatist pages operating from inside Iran with apparent government approval.

Analysts say it is meant to keep parts of the opposition narrative under the control of the clerical establishment.

The exposure proved particularly embarrassing for officials who had publicly opposed privileged internet access.

Mohajerani had claimed she used VPN software like ordinary citizens, saying: “Class-based internet has neither legal basis nor will it ever be on the government’s agenda.”

Mahdi Tabatabaei, communications deputy, said: “Making society white and black is playing on the enemy’s field.”

He added that from President Masoud Pezeshkian’s view, “all 90 million Iranians are white”.

Journalist Yashar Soltani compared the situation to George Orwell’s Animal Farm. He said: “When freedom is rationed it’s no longer freedom – it’s structural discrimination.”

World

Aid Workers Stand Trial in Greece on Migrant Smuggling Charges

TOPSHOT - Migrants sit onboard an inflatable boat before attempting to illegally cross the English Channel to reach Britain, off the coast of Sangatte, northern France, on July 18, 2023. (Photo by BERNARD BARRON / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Migrants sit onboard an inflatable boat before attempting to illegally cross the English Channel to reach Britain, off the coast of Sangatte, northern France, on July 18, 2023. (Photo by BERNARD BARRON / AFP)
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Aid Workers Stand Trial in Greece on Migrant Smuggling Charges

TOPSHOT - Migrants sit onboard an inflatable boat before attempting to illegally cross the English Channel to reach Britain, off the coast of Sangatte, northern France, on July 18, 2023. (Photo by BERNARD BARRON / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Migrants sit onboard an inflatable boat before attempting to illegally cross the English Channel to reach Britain, off the coast of Sangatte, northern France, on July 18, 2023. (Photo by BERNARD BARRON / AFP)

Two dozen aid workers went on trial in Greece on Thursday on charges including migrant smuggling, in a case that rights groups have dismissed as a baseless attempt to outlaw aid for refugees heading to Europe.

The trial on the island of Lesbos comes as EU countries, including Greece - which saw more than one million people reaching its shores during Europe's refugee crisis in 2015-2016 - are tightening rules on migration as right-wing parties gain ground across the bloc, Reuters said.

The 24 defendants, affiliated with the Emergency Response Center International (ERCI), a nonprofit search-and-rescue group that operated on Lesbos from 2016 to 2018, face multi-year prison sentences. The felony charges include involvement in a criminal group facilitating the illegal entry of migrants and money laundering linked to the group's funding.

Among them is Sarah Mardini, one of two Syrian sisters who saved refugees in 2015 by pulling their sinking dinghy to shore and whose story inspired the popular 2022 Netflix movie The Swimmers, and Sean Binder, a German national who began volunteering for ERCI in 2017. They were arrested in 2018 and spent over 100 days in pre-trial detention before being released pending trial.

"The trial's result will define if humanitarian aid will be judicially protected from absurd charges or whether it will be left to the maelstrom of arbitrary narratives by prosecuting authorities," defense lawyer Zacharias Kesses told Reuters.

Greece has toughened its stance on migrants. Since 2019, the center-right government has reinforced border controls with fences and sea patrols and in July it temporarily suspended processing asylum applications for migrants arriving from North Africa.

Anyone caught helping migrants to shore today may face charges including facilitating illegal entry into Greece or helping a criminal enterprise under a 2021 law passed as part of Europe’s efforts to counter mass migration from the Middle East and Asia. In 2023, a Greek court dropped espionage charges against the defendants.

Rights groups have criticized the case as baseless and lacking in evidence. "The case depends on deeply-flawed logic," Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "Saving lives at sea is mischaracterized as migrant smuggling, so the search-and-rescue group is a criminal organization, and therefore, the group’s legitimate fundraising is money laundering."