"Invalid characters" error when using Russia

[vicapow]

"Text line contains an invalid character." error coming from russian-apa.lbx

Steps to reproduce. create a main.tex file

\documentclass[12pt, twoside]{report}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=apa, natbib=true]{biblatex}

\usepackage[russian, english]{babel} % remove "russian" and the error goes away

\begin{document}

TEST

\end{document}

You can also see the file on ctan.org

https://mirrors.rit.edu/CTAN/macros/latex/contrib/biblatex-contrib/biblatex-apa/russian-apa.lbx

has this section:

[plk]

You won't be able to use package inputenc with such charsets. Try replacing that with:

\usepackage{fontspec}

[vicapow]

same error using \usepackage{fontspec}

it also only errors using the latest version of this package. ie., it works fine in texlive 2024

Also, did you see my screenshot of the file? I seems unlikely this file should have something like philkime@tree.local.1741 in it but maybe I'm wrong

[plk]

Apologies - there was corruption in the localisation file - I have just released version 9.20 to CTAN - should be available later today.