President Volodymyr Zelensky told lawmakers Wednesday that Ukraine's Western partners are increasing pressure to negotiate with Russia, but he hinted such talks would be unfavorable to Kyiv as he unveiled what he called his "victory plan" for the war.

Major points of the plan include an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO and permission to use Western-supplied longer-range missiles to strike military targets deep inside Russian territory — steps that have been met with reluctance by Kyiv's allies so far.

The Biden administration believes it has won assurances from Israel that it will not hit Iranian nuclear or oil sites as it looks to strike back following Iran's missile barrage earlier this month, two U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The administration also believes that sending a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to Israel and roughly 100 soldiers to operate it has eased some of Israel's concerns about possible Iranian retaliation and general security issues.

Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi slammed as "a disaster" on Monday what he called U.S. obstruction of the United Nations Security Council in relation to the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.

In a phone call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Araghchi welcomed efforts by China, a permanent member of the council, to "stop the warmongering and the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel)" in Gaza and Lebanon and described the "inaction of the U.N. Security Council due to the obstruction of the United States as a disaster".

Iran has stopped indirect talks with the United States in Oman as tensions remain high over a possible Israeli retaliatory strike on Tehran over an earlier missile attack, the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister said Monday.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made the comment to Iranian state media while still in Muscat, Oman. The sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula long has been an interlocutor between Iran and the U.S., particularly in the secret talks that birthed Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Iran held a series of diplomatic talks on Sunday, with President Masoud Pezeshkian seeking support from France's Emmanuel Macron for a ceasefire in Lebanon, and the foreign minister visiting Iraq while on a regional tour.

According to a statement on Iran's presidential website, Pezeshkian and Macron discussed ways to secure a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel as the Iranian leader condemned Israel's "crimes" in Gaza and Lebanon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin began talks with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat on Friday, Russian news agencies reported.

The meeting comes amid soaring tensions in the Middle East, with Israeli air strikes on Lebanon's capital Beirut that it says are aimed at Iran-backed Hezbollah.

An office of Israeli military technology firm Elbit Systems in Gothenburg was the target of shooting Thursday, according to media, with Swedish police saying there were no injuries.

"We received a report in the morning about a shooting against an Israeli object in Kalleback" in Gothenburg, police spokesman Fredrik Svedemyr said in a statement, adding that a young suspect had been arrested.

France's minority government survived a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, two weeks after taking office, getting over the first hurdle placed by left-wing lawmakers to bring down new conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

The vote was a key test for Barnier, whose Cabinet is forced to rely on the far right's good will to be able to stay in power, as the nation grapples with economic challenges exacerbated by global inflation.

Russian attacks on Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv throughout Tuesday killed two people and wounded more than 30, regional authorities said.

"Two dead and more than 30 wounded as a result of shelling over the day," the head of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegubov, said on social media, adding that authorities were clearing the area.

Britain is facing a "staggering rise" in assassination attempts on U.K. soil by Russia and Iran, as the hostile states recruit criminals to "do their dirty work" for them, the head of the U.K.'s domestic intelligence agency said Tuesday.

MI5 director Ken McCallum said his agents and police have tackled 20 Tehran-backed plots since 2022 and warned that Iran could expand its targets in the U.K. if Israel attacks in response to Iran's missile barrage. The spy chief said the widening conflicts in the Middle East raise the risk "of an increase in – or broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the U.K."