The Russian Invasion

    

The President of Russia joins the Brics meeting in Johannesburg. Alet Pretorius / AP  

Russian invasion | BRICS meeting in South Africa 

Split agenda as Brics gathers with Putin on link 

Several topics are discussed during the second day of the BRICS meeting in South Africa. Brazilian President Lula da Silva believes that a common trading currency between Brics countries would reduce their "vulnerability" because it increases payment options, writes Reuters.  

 

At the same time, China's leader Xi Jinping is urging other countries to speed up the expansion of the economic association, one of the main issues at the meeting. 

 

- We should let more countries join the Brics family and gather wisdom to make global governance more fair and reasonable, says Xi.  

 

And on a video link from Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the country will use its presidency next year to "strengthen BRIC's position in the world". In his speech, Putin also went on to falsely claim that the invasion of Ukraine was a response to aggression from Kyiv and the West.  

 

King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia received President Volodymyr Zelenskyj with wife Olena Zelenska at Stenhammar Castle as part of the visit to Sweden. Jonas Ekströmer/TT  

 

Russian invasion Zelenskyi's visit  

Troll post after picture of Zelenskyj and the king 

 

The royal family had to disable the comments section on its official Instagram account after it published a picture of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The reason was that many of the comments were about misinformation and making Zelenskyi suspicious, writes SvD.  

 

Cyber threat expert Mattias Wåhlén tells the newspaper that words like "crook" and "beggar" are common in the Russian disinformation campaigns against Ukraine. He believes that there are also clear signals that social media posts have been posted by "trolls" or bots.  

 

During his visit to Sweden, Zelenskyj met the king and queen and signed a ten-point cooperation agreement with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M).  

 

Maria Persson Löfgren, Sveriges Radio's correspondent in Russia. AP/TT  

The Russian Invasion|The Battles 

Analysis: The war will continue until Russia wins 

 

Many countries' promises to Ukraine in recent days, from Sweden in the form of Stridsfordon 90, from Denmark and the Netherlands in the form of F-16 planes, "sound big" but none of them will affect Ukraine's success until the long term, writes Dagens Nyheter's Anna - Lena Lauren.  

 

She believes that there is a general belief in the Western world that Ukraine will win the war – a belief that is largely based on wishful thinking, according to her.  

 

"Russia is prepared to go to war as long as necessary. So is Ukraine, but Ukraine is much more dependent on help from the outside world," writes Laurén.  

 

Sveriges Radio's podcast The radio correspondents have today broadcast a special program from the Cultural Center in Stockholm where they also discuss the question of when the war might end. The radio's Russia correspondent Maria Persson Löfgren is on the same line as Laurén. The war will continue until Russia wins, she believes.  

 

- Unfortunately, that is the answer and thus you can probably say that this is a war that will continue as long as the people in power continue to do so.