Ukraine's interior minister and his deputy were among 14 people killed on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed near a nursery outside the capital Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Davos economic forum via video link later in the day, urging the West to “speed” up aid for Ukraine, including tank deliveries. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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10:56pm : US not ‘there yet’ on Abrams tanks for Ukraine
The United States is not currently prepared to provide advanced Abrams tanks to Ukraine, a senior Pentagon official said, citing difficulties in maintenance and training.
Ukraine has repeatedly pushed for modern Western tanks to help battle Russia’s invasion, and Germany has reportedly linked its decision on whether to do so to Washington’s willingness to provide Abrams.
“I just don’t think we’re there yet,” US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told journalists when asked about providing Abrams to Ukraine, though he did not completely close the door on a shift in the future.
“The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment. It’s expensive, it’s hard to train on, it has a jet engine— I think it’s about three gallons to the mile with jet fuel. It is not the easiest system to maintain,” Kahl said.
10:11pm: UN calls out Black Sea grain deal backlog, urges improvement
The United Nations has called out inefficiencies in the operation of a deal allowing Ukraine Black Sea grain exports, but has not laid blame for a backlog of more than 100 ships in Turkish waters waiting on travel approval and inspections.
Under the deal agreed by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations in July, ships are inspected in Turkish waters on their way to and from Ukraine. The four parties work together to approve and inspect ships traveling under the agreement.
“The United Nations urges all parties to work to remove obstacles for the reduction of the backlog and improve operational efficiencies,” it said in a statement.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield last week accused Russia of a “deliberate slowdown of inspections,” saying that 5 million tonnes of food a month should be moving under the agreement. The Russian UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters on the remark.
9:35pm: IAEA sends staff to all Ukraine nuclear plants
The International Atomic Energy Agency is placing teams of experts at all four of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants to reduce the risk of severe accidents as Russia’s war against the country rages on, agency head Rafael Grossi said Wednesday.
The UN nuclear watchdog already has a permanent presence at Ukraine’s — and Europe’s — largest nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia that is held by Russian forces.
As of Thursday, IAEA flags will fly alongside Ukrainian ones at the country’s nuclear facilities. “They reflect and they will signify the presence of some of the best-renowned experts in safety and security who will provide advice, and technical support during this very difficult time to each facility facing different challenges and problems depending on the situation,” Grossi said.
8:35pm: Berlin will not allow exports of German tanks to Ukraine unless US sends tanks, WSJ reports
Germany will not allow allies to ship German-made tanks to Ukraine to help its defence against Russia unless the United States agrees to send its own tanks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing senior German officials.
5:20pm: Zelensky addresses Davos, urges 'speed' in helping Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Davos economic forum via a live video link on Wednesday, urging the West for “speed” in its efforts to arm Ukraine.
The comment was a barely veiled reference to hesitations in Germany about whether to supply heavy Leopard tanks to the country or not.
“The time the Free World uses to think is used by the terrorist state to kill,” Zelensky said, warning that, “tyranny is outpacing democracies”.
3:42pm: Ukraine’s Zelensky writes letter to invite China’s Xi for ‘dialogue’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has written to Chinese leader Xi Jinping inviting him to talks which was handed over in Davos to the Chinese delegation, his wife Olena Zelenska said.
Zelensky has repeatedly sought to make contact with Xi since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year in the hope that Beijing will use its influence over Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“It was a gesture and invitation to dialogue and I hope very much that there will be a response to this invitation,” Zelenska told reporters.
China and Russia announced a “no limits” partnership in February last year in August, shortly before Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine. China has sought to position itself as neutral in the war, while at the same time deepening ties with Moscow, particularly in the energy sector. But some analysts have suggested Beijing could ultimately step in as a mediator to negotiate an end to the fighting in Ukraine.
3:35pm: NATO chief calls for significant increase in weapons for Ukraine
Ukraine needs a “significant increase” in weapons at this pivotal moment in the war, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday, noting such support was the only route to a negotiated peaceful solution with Russia.
“President Putin has shown no sign of preparing for peace and therefore he must realise he cannot win on [the] battlefield. This is [a] pivotal moment in the war and the need for a significant increase in support for Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“If we want a negotiated peaceful solution tomorrow we need to provide more weapons today.”
3:05pm: Ukrainian emergency services revise down death toll in helicopter crash
The Ukrainian state emergency services has revised down the death toll of a helicopter crash in the town of Brovary outside Kyiv to 14 people, including one child. Earlier in the day, the death toll had been set at 18 people, including three children.
The deputy head of the president’s office published the same information.
2:52pm: Ukraine appoints police chief as new acting interior minister after helicopter crash
Ukraine’s government appointed national police chief Ihor Klymenko as acting interior minister on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced the appointment hours after the previous minister, Denys Monastyrskyi, was killed in a helicopter crash near Kyiv. He said Klymenko had officially been appointed to the role of deputy interior minister, but would fulfil the responsibilities of the late minister.
2:18pm: Canadian defence minister, visiting Kyiv, announces supply of 200 armoured vehicles
Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand visited Kyiv to meet Ukrainian officials on Wednesday and announced the supply of 200 Senator armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine, as part of a new package of military assistance.
The Canadian defence ministry said in a statement that Ukraine had specifically requested the vehicles and that Anand was meeting officials including Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov in the Ukrainian capital.
"This aid is valued at over $90 million and is allocated as part of the additional $500 million in military aid for Ukraine announced by Prime Minister Trudeau in November 2022," it said.
1:50pm: Germany offers to help Ukraine probe helicopter crash
Germany has offered Kyiv its help in investigating the helicopter crash near Kyiv that killed Ukraine's interior minister along with over a dozen others.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement that she had sent her sympathies to the Ukrainian government "and offered Germany's support in identifying the causes of the helicopter crash".
Offered his condolences, Chancellor Olaf Scholz noted later in a tweet that the accident showed the "immense price" Ukraine was paying "in this war".
"Our thoughts on this sad day are with the victims' loved ones and the injured," as well as with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "who lost his interior minister today".
1:25pm: Russia and China are alert to Western 'games', says Lavrov
During his lengthy press conference today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States was attempting to "contain" both Russia and China with the help of other countries – but that Moscow and Beijing were alert to its "games".
Lavrov said Washington sees both countries as systemic rivals but is not powerful enough to keep them both in check, and is therefore mobilising Europe, Japan and others to join it. He accused the West of trying to drive a wedge between Russia and China.
"The West is trying to sow discord in our relations (...) We and China see all these games," he said.
Russia and China signed a "no limits" partnership last February, and their economic links have boomed as Russia's connections with the West have shrivelled. However, Russia's Vladimir Putin has publicly acknowledged that Chinese President Xi Jinping has "concerns" over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.
12:25pm: Ukraine urges caution as investigators scour helicopter crash site
Ukrainian officials say it is not immediately clear what caused Wednesday's helicopter crash in a suburb of Kyiv, in which at least 18 people have died including the country's interior minister.
Reporting from the scene, FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg says authorities are “placing great emphasis on the need to not speculate about the causes of the crash” – and are "not ruling out any hypothesis".
12:10pm: Russia says soldier killed after deserting military base
Russian authorities say they have "liquidated" a soldier who left his military base, with state media identifying the man as an armed deserter who was fighting in Ukraine.
"Dmitry Perov, wanted for the unauthorised abandonment of his military unit, was found and liquidated," the government of the Lipetsk region, in western Russia, said on social media.
There have been several cases of desertions among Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine in recent months. The Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday that eight servicemen who refused to fight in Ukraine have been charged with desertion.
When Russia's Vladimir Putin ordered a mobilisation of 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine in September, he also hardened laws on desertion, introducing punishments of up to 10 years in prison for deserting or refusing to fight.
Thousands of Russians fled the country after the mobilisation announcement to avoid being drafted.
11:15am: Zelensky says deadly helicopter crash 'a terrible tragedy'
Ukraine's president has reacted to the fatal helicopter crash outside Kyiv that killed the interior minister and more than a dozen others.
"Today, a terrible tragedy occurred in Brovary, Kyiv region. A SES (state emergency services) helicopter crashed, and a fire broke out at the crash site. The pain is unspeakable," Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement on social media.
Kyiv Regional Governor Oleksii Kuleba said three children were also killed in the crash, which occured near a kindergarten in Kyiv's eastern suburb of Brovary. A total of 29 people were injured, including 15 children, he said.
FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reports from Kyiv.
10:50am: US diverting Israel-stored munitions to Ukraine, NYT reports
The United States is diverting munitions stored in Israel to Ukraine for use in the war against Russia, the New York Times reports, saying the decision was made last year.
An Israeli official confirmed the report to Reuters, saying that then-Prime Minister Yair Lapid approved the transfer although the United States does not formally need such consent.
For decades, the Pentagon has stored munitions in Israel to serve as emergency resupplies for the country in wartime – or for handover to other US allies.
According to the New York Times, the munitions Washington decided to move from Israel to Ukraine are around 300,000 155-millimetre artillery shells. Around half of that has been sent to Europe for redistribution to Ukraine, the newspaper said.
10:30am: EU's Michel says minister killed in crash was 'friend of EU'
The head of the European Council Charles Michel has lamented the death Ukraine's Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, describing him in a tweet as a "great friend of the EU".
Monastyrsky, 42, a trained lawyer, had served as Ukraine's interior minister from July, 2021.
He was a key member of President Volodymyr Zelensky's party and was married with two children.
10:15am: Lavrov likens West's stance on Russia to Hitler's 'Final solution'
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the United States of assembling a coalition of European countries to solve "the Russian question" in the same way that Adolf Hitler had sought a "final solution" to eradicate Europe's Jews.
Lavrov, who caused an international furore last year with remarks about Hitler, said Washington was using the same tactic as Napoleon and the Nazis in trying to subjugate Europe in order to destroy Russia.
Using Ukraine as a proxy, he said, "they are waging war against our country with the same task: the 'final solution' of the Russian question. ... Just as Hitler wanted a 'final solution' to the Jewish question, now, if you read Western politicians ... they clearly say Russia must suffer a strategic defeat."
The 'Final Solution' was Hitler's Holocaust blueprint, which led to the systematic murder of 6 million Jews, as well as members of other minority groups.
10:02am: Death toll rises in helicopter crash, victims named
The death toll from the helicopter crash in Kyiv's suburb of Brovary has risen to 18, Ukrainian authorities said.
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his deputy Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yurii Lubkovych were among those killed, according to Ihor Klymenko, chief of Ukraine’s National Police.
Nine of those killed were aboard the emergency services helicopter that crashed in Brovary, an eastern suburb of the Ukrainian capital, Klymenko said. A total of 22 people were injured, including 10 children.
There was no immediate word on whether the crash was an accident or a result of the almost 11-month war with Russia.
9:25am: Interior minister among 16 dead in helicopter crash near Kyiv
Sixteen people including Ukraine's interior minister and other senior ministry officials were killed in the helicopter crash outside Kyiv, the national police chief has said.
Two children were among the dead and several more casualties were in hospital, officials said.
The town of Brovary is located some 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Kyiv. Russian and Ukrainian forces fought for control of Brovary in the early stages of Moscow's invasion until Russia's troops withdrew in early April.
8:48am: Helicopter crashes near nursery close to Kyiv
A helicopter has crashed near a nursery and a residential building in the town of Brovary outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the local governor has said, adding that there are casualties.
"At the time of the tragedy, children and staff of the institution were in the kindergarten. Everyone has now been evacuated," Kyiv region governor Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
8:30am: 'Dnipro deaths have strengthened Ukraine’s determination to secure more weapons'
Rescuers have ended the search for victims of the Russian missile strike on an apartment building that killed at least 45 people in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, with 20 people still missing and funerals being held in the grief-stricken community.
The grim tally comes as Ukraine has moved a step closer to winning approval for German-made modern battle tanks to confront invading Russian forces and has secured a pledge of more Patriot defence missiles from the West.
FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reports from the capital Kyiv.
6:35am: Patriot training will take 10 weeks, says Ukraine's defence minister
The training of Ukrainian officers to operate the Patriot advanced long-range air defence system will last 10 weeks, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said.
The United States, Germany and the Netherlands have pledged to send Patriot missile systems to Ukraine to repel a barrage of Russian missile and drone attacks.
"There is a decision that our officers will be trained in 10 weeks. Such obligations were undertaken by the American partners," Reznikov said, in remarks published on Ukraine's state Military Media Center Telegram messaging app.
2:22am: Russia's newest nuclear submarine on its way to temporary base in Arctic
The Russian navy's newest nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine Generalissimo Suvorov is on its way to a temporary base for the Northern Fleet in the Arctic, the TASS news agency reports, citing an unidentified defence source.
"Recently, the submarine cruiser Generalissimo Suvorov has started moving from Severodvinsk, where it was located at the Sevmash shipyard, to a temporary base for the Northern Fleet," the state agency cited its source as saying.
The strategic submarine was officially included into the Russian navy at the end of 2022 by President Vladimir Putin.
1:17am: UK sees 'moral imperative' of Ukraine tanks as US teases new aid
Britain said Tuesday that its breakthrough decision to provide tanks to Ukraine to fight Russia was a "moral imperative" as the United States said that more military aid was coming.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on a visit to Washington said that Britain was sending a signal to Russia's Vladimir Putin by backing the Ukrainians and becoming the first nation to agree to their request for Western tanks.
"What Putin should understand is we are going to have the strategic endurance to stick with them until the job is done. And the best thing that he can do to preserve the lives of his own troops is to recognize that we're going to stick with Ukrainians until they are victorious," he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Read more: UK offers tanks in Ukraine’s hour of need, but will Germany follow suit?
12:33am: Russia's commissioner denies talks on large prisoner exchange with Ukraine
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has said she did not talk to her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets in Turkey last week about a possible prisoner exchange.
"In my negotiations with Ombudsman of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets in Ankara there was never any talk of exchanges, and I always emphasise that these issues are within the competence of the Russian Ministry of Defence," Moskalkova said on theTelegram messaging app.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
