Iran pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump's pressure tactics ahead of critical talks in Geneva over Tehran's nuclear program, alternating between calling his remarks "big lies" to saying negotiations may yield an agreement through "honorable diplomacy."

The remarks by two Iranian officials ahead of Thursday's talks come as America has assembled its biggest deployment of aircraft and warships to the Middle East in decades, part of Trump's efforts to get a deal while Iran struggles at home with growing dissent following nationwide protests last month.

A Ukrainian delegation is set to meet Thursday with American envoys in the run-up to another round of trilateral talks with Russia, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary, is due to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Zelensky told reporters in a media chat Wednesday.

Japan's government said Wednesday that a Japanese national has been detained in Tehran since January and demanded the Iranian authorities release them swiftly.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki, asked about foreign media reports on the case, confirmed only that the Japanese citizen was taken into custody on Jan. 20 but gave no further details, citing privacy issues.

A Ukrainian drone attack on a factory in Russia's western Smolensk region killed four people and injured 10 others, the region's governor said Wednesday.

"Four employees tragically died while performing their professional duties. Ten were injured," Smolensk region governor Vasily Anokhin said in a video published on his Telegram account.

The U.S. ambassador to Paris called the foreign minister and had "amicable" talks, the embassy said Tuesday, as Washington sought to calm a diplomatic spat over the killing of a far-right activist in France.

Ambassador Charles Kushner and Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot "spoke today in a frank and amicable call," a U.S. Embassy spokesperson said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump delivered the longest-ever State of the Union address on Tuesday, beating Bill Clinton's 2000 record of one hour and 20 minutes.

Trump declared during the marathon State of the Union that "we're winning so much" — insisting he'd sparked an economic boom at home and imposed a new world order abroad in hopes it can counter his sliding approval ratings.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is meeting China's top leaders Wednesday at the start of a whirlwind two-day visit to press for a fair economic playing field for German companies, and China's assistance in bringing about an end to Russia's four-year-old war in Ukraine.

The German leader's plane touched down in the late morning on an overcast day in the Chinese capital. Before his departure, he emphasized the importance of placing Germany's China policy in a European context, saying it was no coincidence that he is visiting not long after French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — and ahead of a planned trip by U.S. President Donald Trump in early April.

Leaders of the G7 global powers, including U.S. President Donald Trump, on Tuesday reaffirmed their "unwavering support for Ukraine" in a statement on the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion.

The UK government on Tuesday announced its "biggest sanctions package" against Russia since ones imposed straight after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine four years ago, targeting oil exports and military equipment suppliers.

Marking the anniversary of the invasion, London announced nearly 300 new sanctions as foreign minister Yvette Cooper visited Kyiv.

More than a dozen senior European officials arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday in a show of support on the fourth anniversary of Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine — a grim anniversary in a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and put European leaders on edge about the scale of Moscow's ambitions on the continent.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country has withstood the onslaught by Russia's bigger and better equipped army, which over the past year of fighting captured just 0.79% of Ukraine's territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.