U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit Monday, hours after a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital and as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushes Western partners to keep providing military support for the war.

Austin said on the X platform that his fourth visit shows "that the United States, alongside the international community, continues to stand by Ukraine."

The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel's plans to attack Iran, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.

The documents are attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, and note that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran's blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1. They were sharable within the "Five Eyes," which are the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Russia says it has swapped 95 Ukrainian soldiers held captive for an equal number of Russian troops in an exchange deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates.

"As a result of the negotiation process, 95 Russian servicemen were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime," the Russian defence ministry said.

This year has seen President Vladimir Putin repeatedly brandish the nuclear sword, reminding everyone that Russia has the world's largest atomic arsenal to try to deter the West from ramping up support for Ukraine.

He ordered his military to hold drills involving battlefield nuclear weapons with ally Belarus.

South Korean intelligence has found that North Korea has dispatched 12,000 troops including special operation forces to support Russia's war against Ukraine, news reports said Friday, a development that could bring a third country into the war and intensify a standoff between North Korea and the West.

Yonhap news agency cited the National Intelligence Service as saying that the North have already left the country, formed into four brigades. Other South Korean media outlets carried similar reports.

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.