A man in a bus was injured after Russian troops attacked the southern Kherson region with drones and artillery on Monday morning, the region’s military administration said.

“As of now, one person is reported injured. A 56-year-old man sustained a mine-blast injury and multiple shrapnel wounds to his face and neck,” the administration said.

Other settlements in the area also came under Russian fire, causing damage to several houses, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

Political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

A Russian disinformation campaign is seeking to support the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) campaign ahead of the country’s February election, a think tank has found.

An analysis of hundreds of German-language posts on X over the past month have exhibited patterns of Russia’s  Doppelgaenger disinformation campaign against the West.

The campaign spreads links to falsified Western news outlets sharing fake information, a German foreign ministry report published last June. Russia has consistently denied involvement.

Recent posts have blamed the Greens for Germany’s economic woes, criticised chancellor Olaf Scholz’s support for Ukraine, and spoken in favour of the AfD, CeMAS said.

The tracked posts share links to falsified German news websites or to articles on authentic ones supporting their narrative, and have achieved over 2.8 million views, CeMAS said.

Russia’s casualties mounted to a record high of 434,000 in 2024, with 150,000 deaths, Ukraine’s commander in chief of the armed forces said.

The toll is higher than the previous two years combined, he said.

“By our calculations, total [Russian] losses amounted to over 434,000 personnel, of whom approximately 150,000 were killed in 2024 alone,” Ukraine commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrski told a Ukrainian TV channel TSN yesterday. “This year of combat has cost them more than the previous two years of the war combined,” he said.

Russia has lost nearly 819,000 of its soldiers, including those killed, captured or wounded since the start of the invasion. Of these 1,580 casualties were reported in the past day.

Hundreds of Swedish troops arrived in Latvia on Saturday to join a Canadian-led multinational brigade along NATO’s eastern flank, a mission Sweden is calling its most significant operation so far as a member of the Western defense alliance.

A ship carrying parts of a mechanized infantry battalion arrived early Saturday in the port of Riga, the Latvian capital, escorted by the Swedish air force and units from the Swedish and Latvian navies, the Swedish armed forces said in a statement.

Latvia borders Russia to its east and Russia ally Belarus to its southeast. Tensions are high across Central Europe due to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Russian troops have taken control of the eastern Ukrainian villages of Shevchenko and Novoiehorivka, the Defence Ministry claimed on Monday.

Shevchenko is just south of the vital city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, a strategic point which Russia is slowly edging towards as it looks to cut off important Ukrainian supply routes.

Novoiehorivka lies in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

The reports have not been independently verified.

Serge in his blue anorak, Olena in her black faux fur jacket – an inconspicuous couple on a trip in Kyiv to show their daughter the capital they did so much to save three years ago.

Their clandestine work as part of self-starting groups of volunteers, heroic by the standards of any war, turned back two invading Russian convoys as they converged on Kyiv in 2022. Serge and a small group of comrades, veterans of Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, took on Putin’s invaders in hit-and-run raids using pickup trucks and weapons they found in a warehouse in Sumy province.

Now Donald Trump is threatening to turn the course of history against Ukraine, by cutting US military support to the embattled nation. This could ultimately allow Vladimir Putin to hang on to the 20 per cent of the country Russia has already taken as part of a future peace deal forced on Kyiv.

World affairs editor Sam Kiley reports:

World War Three may have already begun, the speaker of Finland’s parliament has said.

“If we don’t know whether we’re at war, it’s always best to assume that we are,” Jussi Halla-aho said, warning that ignoring the reality of global conflicts could result in even more severe consequences.

The world may not have realised World War Three has begun because “we’re trying so hard to avoid it”, Mr Halla-aho said according to European Pravda.

It comes after Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson said last Sunday: “Sweden is not at war. But it is not a state of peace either.”

The UK will explore the possibility of establishing military bases in Ukraine, according to a 100-year declaration signed between the two countries.

Signed alongside the 100-year Partnership Agreement last week, the declaration states the UK will work with Ukraine to identify common defence needs and expand the capabilities of both countries.

“The Participants will explore options for deploying and maintaining defence infrastructure in Ukraine, including military bases, logistics depots, reserve military equipment storage facilities and war reserve stockpiles,” the declaration reads.

“These facilities could be utilised to bolster their own defence capabilities in the event of a significant military threat.”

The possibility of military bases is only presented as a theoretical possibility, and no specifics of the placement of potential bases is laid out.

It is also unclear how Article 17 of the Ukrainian Constitution – which prohibits military bases on Ukrainian territory – may impact any future plans.