Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Kyiv says it repels attacks in east

* The Russian and Ukrainian human rights commissioners will meet in Turkey this week, news agencies from both countries reported on Monday, for talks likely to include the possibility of further exchanges of prisoners. * Russia and Belarus will hold joint aviation drills of the air divisions that are part of the two countries' regional grouping of troops.

Ukraine is strengthening its forces in the eastern Donbas region and repelling constant attacks on Bakhmut and other towns there by Russian mercenary group Wagner, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday.

FIGHTING: * Ukrainian forces are repelling constant attacks on the town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region and holding their positions in nearby Soledar in very difficult conditions, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday.

* A Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk missed its targets and there were no obvious signs of casualties, a Reuters reporter said on Sunday. Moscow had claimed the strike killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers in retaliation for a Ukrainian strike that killed scores of Russians on New Year's Eve. The Kremlin said it was confident the Russian military's account was correct. * Two women were killed and several other people were wounded in a Russian missile strike on a market in the village of Shevchenkove in eastern Ukraine on Monday, the regional governor said.

* Ukrainian police said they were looking for two British voluntary workers who had gone missing in east Ukraine. DIPLOMACY

* The Kremlin said new Western deliveries of armoured vehicles to Ukraine would deepen suffering. France, Germany and the United States all announced new plans last to send armoured vehicles to Ukraine, and Sky News reported Britain was considering supplying Ukraine with battle tanks. * White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said

Iran could be contributing to war crimes in Ukraine by providing drones to Russia.

* Russia and Ukraine each returned 50 captured soldiers in the latest prisoner swap in the war. Ukraine said the returnees included fighters from Mariupol and Chernobyl. Freed Ukrainians sang the national anthem on their release. * The Russian and Ukrainian human rights commissioners will meet in Turkey this week, news agencies from both countries reported on Monday, for talks likely to include the possibility of further exchanges of prisoners.

* Russia and Belarus will hold joint aviation drills of the air divisions that are part of the two countries' regional grouping of troops. The drills will last from Jan. 16 to Feb. 1. * Justice ministers from around the world will gather in London in March to boost international support for the International Criminal Court in its investigations of alleged war crimes in Ukraine, the British government said.

BUSINESS * Russia's

Lukoil sold its Italian refinery to a consortium of Western private equity and trading firms, the companies said, in the first major sale of Russian-held western assets since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. (Compiled by Peter Graff and Kevin Liffey;)

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