This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Alex Ritson, and at 14 hours GMT on Monday, the 2nd of January, these are our main stories.

A Russian official says President Putin's forces suffered a massive blow in a Ukrainian attack

on hundreds of soldiers in Donetsk. A public wake has begun at Santos FC in Brazil for the legendary

player Pele. The Indian Supreme Court has upheld a decision by the government to withdraw most high

denomination notes. Also in this podcast, 14 people are left dead as suspected drug cartel

gunmen help prisoners escape from a Mexican jail, saving energy in French supermarkets.

You're always moving in the hypermarkets, so that keeps you warm. As for the lights,

perhaps you can't see things quite as clearly, but you can still see the process.

Welcome Emily Pree.

And the body of the late Pope Benedict is lying in state at the Vatican.

On New Year's Eve, President Putin vowed to press on with what he calls his special

operation in Ukraine, promising that we will triumph for our families and for Russia.

At the same time, though, his troops suffered another deadly defeat in the war in Ukraine,

in an attack in the eastern region of Donetsk on Saturday. I heard more from our key

correspondent Hugo Bachega. What the Ukrainians are saying is that 400 soldiers were killed 300

wounded. They're talking about a base of school that was being used as a base by Russian forces

in the Occupyantan of Makiivka in the eastern Donetsk region. As usual, they don't say they were

behind this attack. What we're hearing now from Russian reports, reports on Russian state media,

is that high-mass missiles, those US-supplied missiles have been used to target this facility.

And we're getting some conflicting reports in terms of numbers. We have these numbers from the

Ukrainians, which obviously haven't been independently confirmed, but the Russians are saying that 15

...