Russian and Ukrainian officials are making contradictory claims of battlefield successes in their 4-year-old war, with Ukraine saying it has pushed Moscow's forces back in some places on the front line but the Kremlin insisting that Russia's invasion of its neighbor is making progress.

At the same time, Russia's almost daily aerial attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine continue, with overnight drone strikes on two cities injuring at least 14 people, including two children, emergency services said Tuesday.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday discussed the Iran war and Ukraine conflict during a "frank and constructive" telephone call, the Kremlin said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday in an interview with CBS that the war with Iran was "very complete" and that the United States was far ahead of his initial timeline of around a month.

U.S. stocks jumped higher and oil prices sank in after-hours trading following Trump's comments, despite the fact that there were no immediate signs of the conflict abating.

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Cyprus on Monday to discuss regional security, while Paris deployed warships to the Mediterranean and the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran stretched into a second week.

French President Emmanuel Macron is traveling to Cyprus on Monday, days after dispatching a warship to the east Mediterranean island nation, where a Shahed drone struck a British air base on its southern coast last week during the Iran war.

Macron ordered the French frigate Languedoc to waters off Cyprus to bolster the European Union member country's anti-drone and anti-missiles defenses. The French president also decided to send ground-based anti-drone and anti-missile defenses to the island, which sustained the first drone attack on European territory.

Iran's ruling clerics on Sunday appointed the slain leader's son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, as the country's new supreme leader, defying threats from the United States and Israel to oppose him.

Here are the latest events in the Middle East war on Saturday:

President Donald Trump said Friday that only Iran's "unconditional surrender" would bring an end to the Middle East war, as Tehran was rocked by some of the heaviest U.S.-Israeli strikes of the spiralling, week-long conflict.

Fresh strikes rocked Iran and Lebanon Friday as Israel and the United States stepped up their attacks in the sprawling Middle East war, with powerful explosions shattering the skies of Tehran.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted he should have a role in picking Iran’s next supreme leader after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose son he said he found unacceptable.