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A Russian guided aerial bomb has struck an apartment building in Kharkiv, injuring 22 people, including children, according to the city’s mayor. The strike follows a day of near-continuous Russian attacks across Ukraine that killed at least five people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered an increase in the size of Russia’s army to 1.55 million active servicemen, according to a presidential decree.
The decree sets the total size of the Russian armed forces at 2,441,630 personnel, including 1,550,000 active servicemen.
The number of active servicemen will increase by 15,500, following a similar expansion ordered in August.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that more than 8,000 North Korean troops were currently on Russian territory.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy also said preparations were underway for the deployment of another 10,000 North Korean troops to Russia.
Russia plans to allocate 17.1 trillion roubles ($202.6 billion) to defence in 2027, according to government budget documents seen by Reuters.
The figure represents a significant increase from the 13.5 trillion roubles originally budgeted and would mark Moscow's highest military spending level since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022.
The documents show total defence spending is expected to reach 50 trillion roubles over the next three years. Russia has also raised its projected 2026 budget deficit to 3.2 per cent of GDP, up from a previous forecast of 1.6 per cent, while state debt is expected to rise above the government's previously stated safe threshold.
The draft budget, due to be submitted to parliament by 1 October, also includes plans for higher borrowing and new taxes on metals and mining companies as Moscow seeks to finance growing expenditure amid the continuing conflict in Ukraine.
A Russian strike on Ukraine's Academy of Sciences building in the centre of the capital Kyiv left one person dead and injured three others, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Monday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's response to his talks with his German counterpart Johann Wadephul at the United Nations last week show that Russia is not interested in peace at all, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.
Lavrov and Wadephul met on Saturday and Lavrov was dismissive about the meeting in a news conference afterwards. He said he learned nothing and Wadephul might as well had called him.
EU countries on Monday imposed sanctions against 10 individuals and 17 entities for their involvement in the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
The list includes Moscow's City Tourism Committee, children's camps and sports camps in Russia and the Songdowon International Children's Camp in North Korea, where the European Council said Ukrainian children are brought to promote pro-Russian narratives.
South Korea's foreign ministry summoned Ukraine's acting ambassador on Monday to protest the disclosure of the transfer of North Korean prisoners to South Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The ministry raised objections to Ukraine's unilateral disclosure of the prisoners' request to go to South Korea during the meeting, Yonhap said.
Berlin said on Monday that its first direct talks with Moscow since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine showed the two sides remain “miles apart” and that Russia is still unwilling to engage in serious negotiations to end the war.
“Our positions were, of course, miles apart, a fact that has once again become apparent,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said, two days after a meeting between German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
The spokesperson added that the talks had reinforced Berlin's conclusion that Moscow remains unwilling to negotiate either a ceasefire or an end to the war in Ukraine.
A Russian drone attack on a business centre in Ukraine's southeastern city of Dnipro killed three people and injured at least 12 more, the regional governor said on Monday.
The sound of a loud explosion was heard in the central part of Ukraine's capital Kyiv, Reuters witnesses said on Monday, and the city administration said it was caused by a Russian drone.
The Kremlin said on Monday that arms control talks between Russia and the United States were long overdue and that lengthy and careful negotiations would be needed when they did resume.
“This is such a complex issue that it requires very lengthy, painstaking expert negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, who said such talks should have restarted “yesterday.”
Russia has repeatedly said it would like to restore badly degraded ties with the U.S., but differences over the conflict in Ukraine have so far prevented a meaningful reset in relations.
Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump's call for trilateral arms control negotiations between the U.S., Russia, and China, Peskov said China had repeatedly made clear that it would not participate and that its stance had not changed as far as Moscow knew.
Beijing says its nuclear arsenal is far smaller than those of Russia and the United States, something it says makes its participation in such talks unnecessary.
Ukraine's military has struck Russian oil facilities in the Krasnodar region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.
Zelenskyy also said that two Russian defence plants in the Tula and Voronezh regions were hit overnight.
Ukrainian forces have recaptured another 51 square kilometres of territory from Russian troops in northern Donetsk, a senior commander said. Brigadier-General Andrii Biletskyi said the gains were made as part of Ukraine’s ongoing “Vivaldi” operation.
He said the operation has now retaken a total of 176 square kilometres, freed three additional villages and restored Ukrainian control over two others. The Institute for the Study of War said the operation has disrupted Russia’s efforts to encircle a group of strategically important Ukrainian-held cities in the region.
Russian forces have continued pressing toward eastern strongholds, including Kostiantynivka, despite a broader slowdown in frontline advances this year. Ukraine currently controls about 20 per cent of the Donetsk region, while Moscow continues to demand control of the entire territory. The latest reported gains follow Kyiv’s earlier counteroffensive in the southeast, where Ukrainian officials said more than 700 square kilometres had been retaken.
Ukrainian drones have attacked railway infrastructure in the Russian border region of Bryansk in three separate strikes which damaged a railway bridge and derailed nearly 30 carriages and wagons, Bryansk's acting governor said on Monday.
Egor Kovalchuk, the official, said in a statement on Telegram that nobody had been hurt in the attacks, which he said had caused part of a bridge to collapse and had damaged railway tracks in one area.
Reuters could not immediately verify his assertion and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Russia has struck a vessel sailing under the Palau flag in Ukraine's Black Sea region of Odesa, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.
Intelligence reports show Russia is planning more acts of sabotage in Europe, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.
“We need to be vigilant because we see in the intelligence that Russia is planning more sabotage acts and attacks against our democracy - to divide our society, to intimidate our societies (into) refraining to help Ukraine,” Kallas said before a meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels.
The Russian defence ministry said on Monday its forces had struck a cargo ship carrying military goods to the port of Odesa in an overnight attack, which also hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure, data and logistic centres, as well as a military airport.
South Korea has demanded an official explanation and apology from Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of disclosing the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers to Seoul despite an agreement to keep the move confidential.
Seoul said Ukraine had repeatedly requested confidentiality over security, diplomatic and humanitarian concerns, including the safety of the prisoners and their families. South Korea said Kyiv later disclosed the transfer during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s UN General Assembly address and subsequently denied that a confidentiality agreement existed.
The two North Korean soldiers were captured in Russia’s Kursk region in January 2025 while fighting for Russia.
Russia’s Defence Ministry says Russian forces struck a cargo vessel in the Black Sea, Interfax reported. No further details on the vessel, the circumstances of the strike or any casualties were provided.
The number of people injured in the Russian guided bomb strike on an apartment building in Kharkiv has risen from 15 to 22, including children, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
In Kyiv, a Russian drone also struck a petrol station, according to city authorities.
A Russian guided aerial bomb struck an apartment building in Kharkiv early Monday, injuring 15 people, including children, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
The strike comes after Russian attacks across Ukraine on Sunday killed two people at a market outside Kyiv and three others in Sumy and Kharkiv. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had launched attacks almost continuously throughout the day, hitting residential buildings, infrastructure and other sites.
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