Russia's defense ministry on Friday said its troops have captured three villages in Ukraine's east Donetsk region, grinding closer to Kyiv's key defensive line in the embattled area.

Russia has captured "the settlements of Katerynivka, Volodymyrivka and Rusyn Yar in the Donetsk People's Republic," the ministry said on Telegram, using the name Moscow uses for the region that it claimed to have annexed in September 2022

Just days away from a European deadline, Iran said Friday its foreign minister would hold a telephone conference call with his French, German and British counterparts to avoid the reimposition of United Nations sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program.

The call, planned for Friday by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, comes as the three parties to Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal threaten to reimpose those sanctions under a mechanism known as "snapback" in the accord. The European Union's chief diplomat will also join the call, IRNA said.

When a Ukrainian-made drone attacked an ammunition depot in Russia last September, it showcased Kyiv's determination to strike deep behind enemy lines and the prowess of its defense industry.

The moment was especially gratifying for the woman in charge of manufacturing the drones that flew more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to carry out this mission. For months after, Russia no longer had the means to keep up devastating glide bomb attacks like the one that had just targeted her native city of Kharkiv.

Uganda has agreed a deal with the United States to take deported migrants on condition that the deportees should not have criminal records and not be unaccompanied minors, officials said Thursday.

The Ugandan foreign affairs ministry in a statement said the "two parties are working out the detailed modalities on how the agreement shall be implemented."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said any presence of European troops in Ukraine would be "absolutely unacceptable", as Kyiv's allies worked on security guarantees for the country.

"This would be absolutely unacceptable for the Russian Federation," Lavrov said in response to a journalist's question about security guarantees for Ukraine, calling them "foreign intervention in some part of Ukrainian territory."

Russia launched 574 drones and 40 ballistic and cruise missiles overnight, in one of its biggest aerial attacks on Ukraine of the year, the Ukrainian Air Force said Thursday, while a recent diplomatic push to stop the three-year war is trying to gain momentum.

The attack mostly targeted western regions of the country, the air force said, where much of the military aid provided by Ukraine's Western allies is believed to be delivered and stored. The strikes killed at least one person and injured 15 others, according to officials.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday informed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by phone that Turkey would support a process involving "all parties" for peace in Ukraine, the Turkish presidency said.

Polish authorities said Wednesday that an object which exploded in the night in the east of the country may have been a military drone of unknown provenance.

NATO defense chiefs were due to hold a virtual meeting Wednesday, a senior alliance official said, as Western countries pushing for an end to Russia's war on Ukraine devise possible future security guarantees for Kyiv that could help forge a peace agreement.

Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of NATO's Military Committee, said that 32 defense chiefs from across the alliance would hold a video conference as a U.S.-led diplomatic push seeks to end the fighting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Wednesday that discussing any Western security guarantees for Ukraine without Russian involvement was a "road to nowhere".

"The West understands perfectly well that seriously discussing security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere," Lavrov told reporters.