A Scottish grandfather has travelled to Ukraine to help the country's armed forces fight the Russian invasion.

A video posted online shows Rab Grady, from Edinburgh, wearing a flak jacket and camouflage fatigues and holding an assault rifle.

Flanked by two Ukrainian fighters, the builder said: "My name is Rob. I'm a 61-year-old grandfather from Scotland."

The BBC understands more than 100 people in Scotland have volunteered to fight in the conflict.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians living abroad have returned home to join the military in an attempt to thwart Russia's invasion, Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced on Monday.

"More than 140,000 Ukrainians, mostly men, have returned from Europe," Reznikov wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. "Tens of thousands joined the Territorial Defense Forces. Of course, there are those who run away. But the whole world sees the Ukrainian people fighting for their country."

Hector served two violent tours in Iraq as a United States Marine, then got out, got a pension and a civilian job, and thought he was done with military service. But on Friday, he boarded a plane for one more deployment, this time as a volunteer in Ukraine. He checked in several bags filled with rifle scopes, helmets and body armor donated by other veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs roll out of a new $16 billion electronic health records system is being delayed again, but this time Covid-19 is the reason.

Department officials on Friday announced that deployment of the new system to the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System, which was supposed to take place on March 5, will instead be pushed back almost two months to April 30.

The White House on Thursday announced a new strategy to identify and treat health issues in veterans who may have been exposed to chemical, physical and environmental hazards while serving.

Why it matters: The Department of Veterans Affairs has recognized that certain illnesses present in veterans are directly caused by or linked to overlooked health hazards present during specific conflicts, such as Agent Orange, a herbicide used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, along the Korea demilitarized zone in the late 1960s and other locations.

The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) will not challenge staff on religious exemption requests for the coronavirus vaccine, the Washington Examiner has reported.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough described such claims as "self-executing" and stressed that the department is not "going to challenge the legitimacy of someone’s claims to a religious [exemption]."

President Biden announced on Tuesday a new strategy to reduce military and veteran suicide that includes promoting safe firearm storage and guides for firearm dealers.

Why it matters: "Since 2010, more than 65,000 veterans have died by suicide — more than the total number of deaths from combat during the Vietnam War and the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan combined," the White House wrote in a news release.

The strategy is pillared by five priorities, per the White House:

Improving lethal means safety

The total cost of caring for veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq could reach $2.5 trillion by 2050, according to a new report.

Providing benefits and medical care to veterans will be the biggest single long-term cost of the post-9/11 wars, Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School, wrote in the report for the Costs of War project.

"Although for the U.S., fighting in Afghanistan may be over, the cost of caring for the veterans have barely started," Bilmes told Newsweek. "And we haven't reckoned yet with that long-term cost ahead."

After an improvised explosive device (IED) left Army Sgt. Dominic McDaniel severely injured and unable to continue fighting in Iraq, the wounded combat veteran found civilian life nearly unbearable.

“I felt guilty because my guys got hurt, and I was in charge. It was my fault,” he said. “They started committing suicide when we got home pretty quick.”

McDaniel dealt with alcohol abuse, divorce, and severe depression before finding help; he now works for a non-profit organization that assists veterans who are dealing with trauma.

In a bid to counter what some officials have described as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” the most populous US state, the country's largest city, and the first federal agency all announced on Monday new vaccine mandates for public employees.