January 18, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

US Secretary of State Antony?Blinken?and?Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu meet at the State Department in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, January 18, 2023.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt ?avu?o?lu met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, where they “conducted an extensive dialogue on a broad range of areas of bilateral cooperation and emphasized the significance of our partnership as NATO Allies,” according to a joint statement released Wednesday by the governments of the Republic of Türkiye and the United States.

The two discussed methods to strengthen NATO “coordination and solidarity in the face of current threats and challenges,” the statement read. Topics of discussion also included NATO’s open-door policy as well as letting Finland and Sweden join NATO. Turkey has been the only member that has voiced opposition to their membership, on the grounds of terror concerns.?

The United States is set to finalize a huge military aid package for Ukraine totaling approximately $2.5 billion worth of weaponry, including — for the first time — Stryker combat vehicles, two sources briefed on the next tranche of aid told CNN. The package is not yet finalized, one of the sources said, but could come before the end of the week.?

The new package is one of the largest to be announced since the war started last February, according to one source. It would include more armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles that, combined with the Strykers, is a significant escalation in the armored vehicles the US has committed to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. Mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles, known as MRAPs, are also on the list, the source said.

The announcement is not expected to include tanks or the long-range missiles that has been repeatedly asked for by Ukraine. The US is expected to send Ukraine more ammunition for its artillery systems and HIMARS rocket systems that have been consistent in recent aid packages.?

Ukrainian officials have been fiercely lobbying Washington for longer-range missiles known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), which have a range of around 200 miles (300 kilometers). The Biden administration has resisted sending them out of fear of escalating the conflict with Russia. The administration has also?pushed back on sending M1 Abrams?tanks because of logistical and maintenance complications.

Funds for energy support: The Biden administration also intends to provide $125 million in additional energy support for Ukraine, according to the US Agency for International Development. The funding, which will be drawn from the 2023 Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act passed in December, builds on existing contributions to assist Ukraine in the face of attacks from Russia.?

Russian military hackers appear to be responsible for a cyberattack that briefly disrupted a Ukrainian government press briefing Tuesday on the subject of Russian hacking threats, Ukraine’s main cybersecurity agency said Wednesday.?

The briefing, held Tuesday in Kyiv, experienced technical glitches not long after it began, but eventually proceeded. The incident is an example of how control of the information space has been a key aspect of the nearly yearlong full-scale Russian war in Ukraine.?

Ukrainian officials said they thwarted the hack, “no matter how many attempts you make to muffle the voice of the Ukrainian media space,” Ukraine’s state news agency declared on its Telegram channel.

A notorious hacking group known as Sandworm, which the US Justice Department has linked to Russia’s military intelligence directorate, was likely responsible, according to a statement from the Ukrainian agency, the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP). Sandworm caused power outages in Ukraine in 2015 and 2016, according to cybersecurity researchers, and?tried to do so again?in April 2022, two months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.?

Russian operatives have continued to pummel Ukrainian organizations with a variety of hacks in the months since, according to analysts, from hacks that wipe data from a network to those that knock communications offline. But US officials have credited Ukraine for becoming more resilient to digital disruptions than in years past.?

Russian hacking during the war has been “designed to increase the chaos of a conventional invasion, reduce the country’s governability, and damage critical infrastructure,” SSSCIP said in a report this week.

People carry away a body from the site of the helicopter crash in Brovary on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave more details Wednesday about rescue operations at the site of the Brovary helicopter crash, in which kindergarten teachers and local residents assisted in evacuations and helped the wounded.?

The rescue operation lasted more than nine hours, and a criminal investigation into the incident is being conducted by the?Security Service of Ukraine, Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“I would like to thank the educators of the kindergarten on the territory of which the helicopter crashed,” Zelensky added. “Thank you for your bold actions, for taking the children out.”

“I would also like to thank the ordinary residents of Brovary, in particular Mrs. Diana, Mrs. Nadia and others who helped both the children and the wounded,” the president said.?

“My condolences to all those who lost their loved ones!”

Zelensky reaffirmed that?25 people were injured in the helicopter crash, including 11 children, and that 14 people were killed, including one child.

Anton Gerashchenko, Ukraine’s current advisor and former deputy minister of Internal Affairs, spoke to CNN’s Isa Soares about the fatal crash and said:?“Ukraine lost the whole generation of young politicians… it’s a huge grief for everyone.”

“We didn’t have that protocol in place,” Gerashchenko said of an entire delegation traveling together. “I think this bloody lesson will be a clear example for us that such high politicians and?ministers cannot travel altogether. But this tragedy brought the death of children, which is amazingly horrible and obviously everyone who died, every life of every Ukrainian is priceless.”

A helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb Wednesday killed 14 people, including one child, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The crash occurred near a kindergarten in Brovary and killed the leadership team of Ukraine’s interior ministry, including Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky.

The rescue operation lasted more than nine hours, and a criminal investigation into the incident is being conducted by the?Security Service of Ukraine, Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed their condolences following the deadly helicopter crash, while NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called it a “new tragedy” for a country that has already suffered during the war.

Here are the latest headlines:

The UN nuclear watchdog finalized the?deployment of permanent missions to Ukrainian power plants — including the plants in?Rivne, Chornobyl, and south Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian prime minister following his meeting with the?head of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday.?

The IAEA mission at Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant will also?be functioning soon, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a press conference, with all the missions’ work continuing during wartime and afterward to restore any damage.?

The IAEA continues to expand its presence in Ukraine, Director General?Rafael Grossi said.

Following the meeting,?Shmyhal said,?“For the first time in the history of mankind, nuclear facilities have become an element of an offensive military strategy,” adding that Grossi pledged the IAEA’s full support in “our efforts to ensure nuclear safety,” including at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Remember: Zaporizhzhia, with six reactors, is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. The area, and the nuclear complex, has been under Russian control?since the beginning of the war. Grossi and other nuclear experts have been concerned about the threat of a nuclear accident amid shelling around the plant.

Shmyhal said Ukraine has asked that the control of the Zaporizhzhia facility be returned to Ukrainian authorities and that there is a “complete withdrawal” of?Russian troops and Rosatom personnel from the plant.?Grossi assured Ukraine that the IAEA would never recognize Russia as the owner of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant., according to Shmyhal.

The prime minister added that Ukraine will “continue to insist on limiting Russia’s rights and privileges in the IAEA and terminating cooperation with Russia in the nuclear sphere.”

Antony Blinken speaks during the United States Conference of Mayors winter meeting on January 18 in Washington, DC.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered “deep sorrow and condolences” following a deadly helicopter crash in Brovary, Ukraine.

“A couple of them left behind small children. They have been heroic in their efforts in defense of Ukraine against the Russian aggression and we stand with our friends in Ukraine in mourning their loss and recommitting to the efforts that we’re making to help Ukraine defend itself against this aggression,” Blinken said at the State Department Wednesday.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday expressed his confidence that Turkey would finalize the process for Nordic countries Finland and Sweden to join the US-led military alliance.

This would be the “fastest accession process in NATO’s modern history,” he noted. “Normally, accession to NATO takes years. It’s less than a year since Finland and Sweden applied.”

Remember: NATO decisions are made by consensus, which means all 30 alliance member states must approve the two nations joining. Turkey is the only member that has voiced opposition to their membership, on the grounds of terror concerns.?

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in video remarks to the forum Wednesday again reiterated his desire for Ukraine to join NATO, saying that the alliance “is the best security guarantee for us, for our country, for our kids.”

Following the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary’s visit with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, DC, Wednesday, the British Foreign Office tweeted a message of bilateral support to end the war in Ukraine.

View the tweet:

Rescuers work the scene of a helicopter crash in Brovary, Ukraine, on January 18.

US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a statement Wednesday expressed their “deepest condolences” following the helicopter crash that killed at least 14 people in Ukraine.??

“Jill and I send our deepest condolences to the families of all those killed in the tragic helicopter crash in Ukraine this morning, including Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrskyy and other senior Ukrainian government officials. Our hearts are also with the dozens of civilians who were killed or injured, including precious children, and their families. We grieve with all those who are mourning this heartbreaking tragedy,” Biden said in the statement.?

Biden called Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky a “reformer and patriot” and praised his involvement “in the preservation of Ukraine’s democracy—both its defense against Russian aggression, and the vital work of reforms to strengthen Ukraine’s institutions through this war and into the future.”?

Separately, the Biden administration on Wednesday also expressed condolences “for this devastating loss today of their interior minister and so many civilian lives, including children.”

John Kirby, national security council director for strategic communications, told CNN’s MJ Lee Wednesday that a cause of the crash has not yet been determined as Ukraine investigates.

Mircea Geoan? speaks to the media in Berlin, Germany, on May 15.

NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoan? on Wednesday warned that the alliance must be prepared “for the long haul” with regards to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Addressing defense chiefs at a NATO military committee meeting in Brussels, Geoan? said allies should invest more in defense, ramp up their capacity to manufacture weapons and ammunition, and “prepare for potential future wars.”

Echoing a warning issued previously by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Geoan? said that “underestimating Russia is dangerous.” He said Russian President Vladimir Putin had already mobilized more than 200,000 additional troops.?

“We have no indication that Putin’s goals have changed. So we must be prepared for the long haul. 2023 will be a difficult year. And we need to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” he said.?

Ukrainian servicemen inspect a residential building damaged during a Russian military strike in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on January 17.

Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday that Russia continues to focus its “main efforts” on an offensive in the direction of the city of Bakhmut, which is?in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

Russia has not abandoned “its intention to capture the Donetsk region,”?Ukraine’s General Staff said in its regular evening statement on Wednesday.

Some background: Bakhmut is perhaps the most contested and kinetic part of the 1,300-kilometer (800 mile) front line in Ukraine and the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Fighting around Bakhmut has raged for months, and?Ukrainian officials previously told CNN that only 10% of the pre-war population remains in the city.?

“In the Bakhmut sector, the areas of 13 settlements came under fire,”?Ukraine’s General Staff said on Wednesday. “Among them are Verkhniokamyanske, Bilohorivka, Vesele, Soledar, Krasna Hora, Bakhmut, Klishchiivka, Kurdiumivka and Druzhba in Donetsk region.”

Ukraine’s General Staff update also said that Russia’s offensives in?Avdiivka and in parts of?Zaporizhzhia?have been unsuccessful, and claimed that Russia is “on the defensive”?in?Novopavlivka and Kherson.?

Related article 'I won't leave': Civilians struggle on with daily life despite battle for Bakhmut | CNN

A general view of the site of the helicopter crash in Brovary on January 18.

Fifteen people are still being treated in the hospital due to the helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb that killed at least 14 on Wednesday, according to Ukraine’s?Minister of Health Viktor Liashko.

Initially,?24 people were hospitalized, but?several have been released to go home under the supervision of a family physician, Liashko said.?

Ten out of the 15 people still hospitalized have been admitted to the Kyiv Medical Burn Center, including six adults and four kids, the health minister added.?

The crash, which occurred near a kindergarten in the Kyiv region, killed the leadership team of Ukraine’s interior ministry, including Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky.

The Ukrainian Security Services has launched an investigation into the crash.

A woman cries next to a memorial for victims near the site of the helicopter crash in Brovary on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky talks from a video screen to participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday again reiterated his desire for Ukraine to join NATO, telling leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum that the alliance is the “best security guarantee for us.”

On Tuesday, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said that while Ukraine must be supported, Russia should be given the opportunity to be a member of the global order.

Asked about Kissinger’s remarks regarding Russia’s place in the world, Zelensky said “Russia has already?earned a place among terrorists.”

“Our priority today, our?political task today is to see?the different political leaders?and figures, those who are still?very relevant or have been?relevant until recently, for?them to be able to recognize the?great mistake that Putin?committed, for them to recognize?this is Russia’s aggression,” Zelensky added.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine talks from a video screen to participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his address to the World Economic Forum to call for speedier decision-making to combat Russian aggression against his country.

“The tyranny is outpacing the?democracy.?Russia needed less than one?second to start the war.?… The time the free world uses to?think is used by the terrorist?state to kill.?Ukraine and its allies have been?resisting it for almost a year,?this period proved all of our?prompt actions brought positive?results,” he said via video to the crowd in Davos, Switzerland.

Zelensky said “the world was hesitant” when Russia took over Crimea in 2014 and then when it attempted to invade the whole country in February 2022.

“The supplying of Ukraine with air defense systems must?outpace Russia’s next missile attacks. … The restoration of security and peace in Ukraine?must outpace Russia’s attacks on?security and peace in other countries,” Zelensky said.

He said he last addressed the forum three years ago, when the world was fighting Covid-19.

“In three years, we will be?discussing new challenges and?threats in Davos.?What will this mean??it will mean We will definitely overcome the?current threat.?If history repeats itself at first the?world either fails to notice or?underestimates a threat, then it unites to resist it,?and then the world wins every time,” the Ukrainian president said. ?

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine talks from a video screen to participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the war has not looked good since it began and that the winter has slowed down progress.

He described the daily fights in the east and that progress has slowed down, but he added that Ukrainians stand strong and united against Russia’s invasion.

“We are standing strongly,?resolutely.?I’m thankful to all of our?warriors, the living ones and the ones we have lost for their bravery,” he said.?“It’s really hard, but we are also?strong inside the nation … We are united, we are organized,?because we are motivated.?It wasn’t us who started the?war, but it was us who will have?to end it.”

He thanked the Western allies for their support in ammunition and economy, and said that the continued assistance will ensure that Ukraine succeeds in this war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stands during a minute of silence before he addresses the World Economic Forum (WEF), in?Davos, Switzerland, on January 18.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos to observe a minute of silence for the victims of the helicopter crash in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary and others who have lost their lives in the war.

“Fourteen of [sic] Ukrainian families lost their loved ones today and many more families are losing [their loved ones] daily because of the war,”?Zelensky said.?“I shall ask you to honor the memory of every person Ukraine has lost with a minute of silence,” he added.?

Ukraine’s interior minister and others from his leadership were killed in the helicopter crash on Wednesday, according to officials.

The Ukrainian Security Services, the SBU, has launched an investigation into the crash, and posted on Facebook that “several versions of the tragedy are being considered.” They include: “Violation of flight rule, technical malfunction of the helicopter (and) deliberate actions to destroy the helicopter.” There has been no suggestion from any other Ukrainian officials about Russian involvement in this crash.

“Every death is the result of war,” Zelensky said when asked by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria about the crash after his remarks. “This is not an accident, this is war. And?war is not only going on on the battlefield, there are different directions of war.”

“Everything which is happening, rockets that hit our people, civilians, what is happening with kindergartens, schools […] every death is the result of war,” he added.

Watch Zelensky’s comments on the helicopter crash here.

CNN’s Lauren Kent contributed reporting to this post.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Wednesday held a moment of silence for the victims of the?helicopter crash in Brovary.

“Denys Monastyrsky, Yevhen Yenin and Yuriy Lubkovych will always be remembered as true professionals, reliable and decent people, patriots of their homeland. They have done a lot for our victory and a better Ukraine. We will always remember them,” he said.

“Once again, I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families of all the victims, especially to the parents who lost their children today,” the prime minister added. “There are no words to describe the terrible grief and pain. May all the victims rest in peace.”

The West has reached its latest fateful crossroads over?Ukraine.

Looming decisions on deepening support for Kyiv’s fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s onslaught have been rendered even more critical by a winter battlefield that was more dynamic than the expected frozen stalemate.

Time is also fast ebbing for the US and its allies to send more?powerful weapons?and to train Ukrainian soldiers how to use them before the second, possibly decisive year of the war, which could see Russia launch a ferocious new offensive.

The aching humanitarian cost of the conflict and the justification for Western aid was, meanwhile, laid bare by the horror of a Russian cruise missile attack on a nine-story apartment block in Dnipro, in central Ukraine, that killed?45 people including six children. The tragedy exacerbated the depravity of an unprovoked war and renewed calls for Putin to face war crime charges. It also underscored that any hopes for a negotiated end to the war are more distant than ever, a fact that seems to have injected new resolve and unity into the Western alliance at a critical moment.

Partners are now committing tanks and armored vehicles to Ukraine. Several are joining the US in sending Patriot anti-missile missiles – steps that would have been off limits early in the war in order to avoid further provoking Putin.

Ukraine, given its desperate plight, will always want more. And while the West’s coming choices will ultimately be based on an assessment of its own interests, the context of?Ukraine’s agony and courage?is impossible to ignore.

“We are facing the collapse of the world as we know it, the way we are accustomed to it or to what we aspire,” said Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, in the latest heart-wrenching and well-timed intervention from Ukraine’s expert messaging effort.

The questions the West now faces are grave, but they are also familiar.

How far should NATO go in supplying Ukraine’s increasingly desperate calls for more numerous and more sophisticated offensive weapons? What is Russia’s red line before Western action provokes a massive escalation – possibly including the use of a battlefield nuclear weapon that could open a horrid new age of warfare and a risk of US-Russia conflagration?

Then there is the question of how much longer the political underpinnings of an extraordinary Western effort to save Ukraine will hold, in the United States and Europe – even if a mild continental winter has weakened Putin’s efforts to wage energy warfare against civilian populations.

Read the full analysis here.

Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg is pictured at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN that the helicopter crash in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary was a “new tragedy” for a country that has already suffered during the war.

He also told CNN’s Julia Chatterley at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Ukraine needs more advanced weapons.

Stoltenberg said that allies were “stepping up” and that “if we want peace … then we need to provide military support to Ukraine.”

When asked about the issue of German-made Leopard tanks — which would need to be approved by Berlin before exporting from Poland or Finland — Stoltenberg said there is a “constant dialogue” between allies. He stressed that Germany has already provided aid to Ukraine but admitted the need for NATO members to provide more sophisticated weaponry.

Germany on Tuesday signaled a reluctance to approving the shipments unless the US sends its own tanks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks as he meets with workers at the Obukhov State Plant, on January 18, in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that the goal of what he calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine is to “end the war” in the eastern Donbas region, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti.

Speaking at a meeting with World War II veterans and survivors of the?siege of Leningrad, Putin reportedly said that effectively “full-scale hostilities in Donbas have not stopped since 2014 — with the use of heavy equipment, artillery, tanks and aircraft.”

In late December, Putin used the word “war” to refer to the conflict in?Ukraine, the first known time he has publicly deviated from his carefully crafted description of Moscow’s invasion as a “special military operation” 10 months after it began.

More on Donbas: The industrial Donbas region blankets much of eastern Ukraine and has been the front line of the country’s conflict with Moscow since 2014. The region’s long-standing industrial pull has attracted people from across Eastern Europe over the past century, and it has had strong social and economic ties to neighboring Russia as well as to the rest of Ukraine.

The distance from the capital Kyiv and other metropolitan centers has given rise to a vast collection of local movements, and that was the backdrop upon which pro-Russian separatists attempted to seize control following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.

Putin’s annexation of Crimea and the occupation of parts of Donbas by Russian-backed rebels in 2014 brought to a crashing halt a period of increasing prosperity in the region.

War broke out in 2014 after Russian-backed rebels seized government buildings in towns and cities across eastern Ukraine. Intense fighting left portions of Luhansk and Donetsk in the hands of Russian-backed separatists.

CNN’s Rob Picheta contributed reporting to this post.

Bodies of victims at the site of the Brovary helicopter crash, are removed from the site on January 18.

Search-and-rescue operations have ended at the Brovary helicopter crash site, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

The service said 14 dead people were found at the crash site, including one child and nine people who were on board the helicopter. Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky was among those killed on the aircraft, according to the ministry.

A helicopter crash in the Kyiv region has killed at least 14 people, including Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky and several members of his leadership team.

Elsewhere, the US is moving munitions stored in Israel for use in Ukraine, and discussions are ongoing with allies, including Germany, over further military aid to Kyiv.

Here are the latest headlines:

With a NATO ally at his side Wednesday, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov again urged for a donation of battle tanks, calling them “crucial” if Ukraine is to defeat Russia in the months ahead.

At a joint news conference in Kyiv, Canada’s Defense Minister Anita Anand pledged another 200 armored personnel carriers. She did not rule out sending tanks, although she signaled Canada was awaiting the results of multilateral defense meetings later this week.

Canada is just one country, along with Poland and Finland, that is considering sending Ukraine the German-made battle tanks but cannot do so unless Berlin grants approval.

Some background: Poland has acknowledged it requires approval from Berlin before exporting its German-made Leopard tanks. A spokesperson for Germany’s government, Christiane Hoffmann, said last week they had received no such request from Poland or Finland. Hoffmann added that Germany is in close contact with the US, France, the UK, Poland and Spain about ongoing military assistance to Ukraine.

Germany on Tuesday signaled a reluctance to approving the shipments unless the US sends its own tanks. “We are never going alone, because this is necessary in a very difficult situation like this,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

NATO defense ministers began a two-day meeting in Brussels Wednesday and will follow up with meetings at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany later in the week as Ukraine’s allies decide how best to supply military equipment in the coming months.

The US has also been reluctant to send Ukraine its M-1 Abrams tank, although the Pentagon has not ruled it out.

Read more about Ukraine’s efforts to secure battle tanks here.

CNN’s Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this post.?

Ukrainian officials have once again revised?down?the number of dead in the helicopter crash in Brovary.

The State Emergency Service?of Ukraine revised the number of dead down to 14 as of 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET) on Wednesday.?The previous number was?17 people.

According to the updated information, 14 dead people were found at the crash site, including one child and nine people who were on board the helicopter. Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky was among those killed on the aircraft, according to the ministry.

Another 25 people, including 11 children, have been injured, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

Search-and-rescue operations have now ended at the crash site, the service said Wednesday afternoon.?

An operational center has been set up in Brovary, located in Lyceum #10, where people affected by the helicopter crash and their relatives may seek psychological and medical assistance.

CNN’s Brent Swails contributed reporting to this post.

Chief of the National Police Ihor Klymenko attends a press briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 3, 2021.

Ukraine’s National Police Chief?Ihor Klymenko will serve as acting interior minister until a new permanent head of the ministry is appointed, according to a statement from the?Ukrainian prime minister on Wednesday.?

Earlier on Wednesday, a helicopter crash near a kindergarten in the Kyiv region killed Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky and?the leadership team of Ukraine’s interior ministry who were traveling on the aircraft, according to officials.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez were among a number of international leaders to offer condolences following the fatal helicopter crash in Brovary on Wednesday.

“Saddened by the tragic death of the Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky. Thoughts for all the victims of this terrible event that occurred near a kindergarten, for the children and the families,” tweeted Macron.

“France offers its condolences to its Ukrainian friends,” he added.

Scholz also tweeted:

“The helicopter crash in #Brovary shows once again the immense toll #Ukraine is paying in this war. Our thoughts on this sad day are with the families of the victims and the injured, as well as with @ZelenskyyUa who lost his Interior Minister today.”

Sánchez said that that he was “shocked by the accident.”

“My condolences to the families, to President @ZelenskyyUa and to the Ukrainian people. All our support,” he added.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said the crash was a “tragedy” and offered her “heartfelt condolences.”

“We are mourning with you,” she added.

Other international figures also reacted to news of the crash:?

UK Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly:

“Tragic news of the helicopter crash in Ukraine this morning, which took the lives of Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyy, members of his team and civilians. Denys was a true friend of the UK. We are ready to support Ukraine in whatever way we can.”

Polish President Andrzej Duda:

“It is with deep sadness that I received information about the helicopter crash in Brovary near Kyiv which left several persons killed, including senior officials of Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior. My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims.”

Lithuanian President Gitanas Naus?da:

“Devastating news about the helicopter crash at Brovary. My condolences to the families of the victims, President @ZelenskyyUa and the people of Ukraine. Lithuania is mourning with Ukrainians. This incident is another tragic consequence of Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

Lesya Ukrainka statue Moscow,?Russia, on January 17.

Four people have been detained by police after laying flowers at a makeshift memorial in central Moscow for the victims of the strike in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the independent Russian human rights monitor OVD-Info said Tuesday.?

The monument to the Ukrainian writer Lesya Ukrainka had turned into “a spontaneous memorial in memory of the victims of the missile strike in Dnipro,” OVD-Info said.?

The watchdog group said the names of the four detained people were not known as of Tuesday.?

They were taken to the Dorogomilovo police station in Moscow, according to OVD-Info. A lawyer from OVD-Info, Anastasia Kostova, went to the police station to help them, the group said.?

CNN has not been able to verify this information independently.?

At least 45 people died when a Russian missile struck an apartment block in Dnipro on Saturday, one of the deadliest single attacks of the war.

The Ukrainian National Police have released the names of the three other interior ministry officials who died in a helicopter crash near a kindergarten in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary Wednesday.

Here are all the interior ministry officials killed in the crash:

In total, six ministry officials died, along with three helicopter crew.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that military-industrial workers might be exempt from the upcoming spring draft during his visit to the Obukhov plant in St. Petersburg.

“As for conscripts who are called up for military service: Considering that the defense industry is currently overwhelmed, and taking into account the fact that you work in three shifts, and the products of defense industry enterprises are in high demand, now we are looking at the possibility of granting a deferment to those who should be called up for military service,” he told the factory workers Wednesday.

“I think this issue will be resolved soon,” he added.

Some background: Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu announced Tuesday that Putin had made a decision to increase the strength of the Russian Armed Forces to 1.5 million servicemen.

“Conceptually, Putin agreed” with the suggestions that were announced by the country’s defense ministry but details of the expansion are yet to be finalized, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. This comes after Russia conducted a partial mobilization of its citizens in September, recruiting 300,000 personnel had been met, according to officials.

At the Obukhov plant, Putin also expressed confidence that Russian victory?in the war is “inevitable” and “guaranteed,” saying that the unity of Russians and the heroism of soldiers on the front line will make victory possible.

Police cordon off the site where a helicopter crashed in Brovary, Ukraine, on January 18.

The Ukrainian Security Services have “launched a pre-trial investigation” of the helicopter crash in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary that killed at least 17 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister.

The service said on Facebook that “several versions of the tragedy are being considered,” including “violation of flight rule, technical malfunction of the helicopter, deliberate actions to destroy the helicopter.”

There has been no suggestion from any other Ukrainian officials about Russian involvement in this crash. Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky called the crash a “tragedy.”

The State Emergency Services of Ukraine now say that 17 people, including four children, died in the Brovary helicopter crash.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky was among those killed in the helicopter crash near a kindergarten in the Kyiv suburb.

Additionally, 25 people, including 11 children, are hospitalized.

The United States has transferred American munitions stored in Israel for use in Ukraine and plans to send more soon, US and Israeli officials told CNN Wednesday.

A US official told CNN they have moved “some” of the 300,000 155-millimeter shells that the US and Israel agreed would be transferred, and that there are plans to move the remaining amount in the coming weeks.

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Richard Hecht told CNN that the Americans notified the Israelis a while ago they were transferring munitions. Hecht said the munitions are US-owned, that their movements are “American business” and that they don’t need Israeli permission to move the munitions.

The New York Times?first reported the American military is tapping into its munitions stockpile stored in Israel for use in Ukraine, noting Israeli officials had initially expressed “concerns about appearing complicit in arming Ukraine.”

Read the full story here.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Denis Monastyrsky, left, presents an award to a border guard in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 14.

Wednesday’s helicopter crash counted Ukraine’s interior minister and several members of his leadership team among its victims, thought to be the most senior government officials to have died since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February.

Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky, his first deputy Yevheniy Yenin, the ministry’s state secretary Yuriy Lubkovychis, the helicopter crew and several ministerial assistants were killed in the crash in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary.

Monastyrsky, 42, was a lawyer by training. According to a biography published on the ministry’s website, he spent some years teaching law and management at a university in his home town of Khmelnytskyi, before deciding to turn “from theory to practice” and become involved in politics.

He worked on reforming Ukrainian law enforcement following the 2014 Euromaidan revolution, rose through the ranks and was appointed interior minister in July 2021.

Last year, Monastyrsky accompanied a CNN crew on a visit to abandoned Russian military positions in Chernobyl.

Yenin, also 42, served as Ukraine’s deputy prosecutor general and deputy minister of foreign affairs before becoming Monastyrsky’s first deputy in September 2021, according to the ministry’s website.

Lubkovychis was 33 and, like the other two men, was also appointed to the ministry in 2021.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement that Monastyrsky, Yenin and Lubkovychis were “true patriots of Ukraine.”

The helicopter which crashed in Brovary on Wednesday “was repeatedly involved in the transportation of personnel to emergency sites,” said the State Emergency Services of Ukraine (SES).

The SES added in a Facebook post that these “Super Puma” ES-225 aircraft are used “often due to the ability to transport a sufficient number of people at the same time.”

“The crew of the aircraft was trained to perform tasks in difficult conditions and had the required number of hours of flying time on ES-225 helicopters,” it added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addresses his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, on January 18.

A meeting between Russian and US intelligence chiefs in November was “useful” but did not produce any “breakthroughs,” said Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday.

Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, and William Burns, CIA director, met at the headquarters of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization in Ankara on November 14.

“They know that we will respond seriously to serious requests: Biden asked Putin for Naryshkin to meet with Burns, and the meeting took place,” Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference on the results of Russia’s diplomatic activities in 2022.

“Yes, it was quite serious and useful, although it did not bring any breakthroughs,” he said.

On Tuesday, Naryshkin said that another meeting with Burns was possible, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Asked whether another such meeting could take place, Naryshkin said “this is possible,” adding the time for a new potential meeting would be determined “by agreement” between the parties, according to TASS.

Rescue services work at the scene of a helicopter crash near the wreckage in Brovary, near Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 18.

Officials from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry were on their way to Kharkiv before their helicopter crashed this morning, according to the Kharkiv Regional Police Chief.

“Today I was supposed to welcome, to shake hands with, to meet… not only the leaders, no, but friends whom I respected and awaited,” wrote Volodymyr Tymoshko on Facebook.

“Today I have talked with everyone who was on board, and drove out to meet them,” he said.

Tymoshko added that their deaths are “an irreparable loss.”

Kharkiv is in northeast Ukraine, and the helicopter crashed in Brovary, east of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials have revised?the number of dead in the helicopter crash in Brovary down to 16 from 18.

?Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration, said that the 16 victims included three children.

All 9 people onboard the helicopter – six Interior Ministry officials and three crew members – died in the crash, leaving a further seven dead.

According to Tymoshenko, 30 people are in hospital, including 12 children. He added that the search and rescue operation is continuing.

Serhiy Kruk, chief of the State Emergency Service, named the crew members as Oleksandr Vasylenko, Kostiantyn Kovalenko, Ivan Kasyanov.

Firefighters work near the site where a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten in Brovary, Ukraine, on January 18.

The Ukrainian Emergency Services have provided a brief outline of the timeline of the helicopter crash in Brovary, which killed 18 people including the Ukrainian Interior Minister.

The helicopter crashed at 8.20 a.m. local time (1.20 a.m. ET), according to a Telegram post from the Emergency Services, “damaging a pre-school facility building with subsequent fire, the windows in a fourteen-story residential building, and three cars.”

By 9.06 a.m. local time the resulting fire was “localized to an area of 500 square meters,” and by 9.26 a.m. it was extinguished, continues the post.?

There are 127 people and 30 vehicles from the Emergency Services involved in the rescue effort, it added.

Workers pass the helicopter crash site in Brovary, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 18.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called Wednesday’s helicopter crash in Brovary “a terrible tragedy.”

Zelensky confirmed that interior minister Denis Monastyrsky, first deputy minister Yevheniy Yenin and state secretary Yuriy Lubkovychis all died in the crash in a statement published Wednesday.

He said he has ordered the Ukrainian security services to “find out all the circumstances” of the incident.

The Interior Ministry officials were “true patriots of Ukraine,” he said.

Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska called it a “horrible day” for the country.

“In helicopter crash we lost the Interior Minister and his colleagues – but the biggest tragedy is a death of children. They have faith that we, as adults, are able to protect them. My thoughts are with the victims’ families. Wish the injured speedy recovery,” she tweeted.

CNN’s Alex Hardie contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky, who died in the Brovary helicopter crash, was “a great friend of the EU,” said Charles Michel, president of the European Council.

Michel said the European Union joins Ukraine “in grief following the tragic helicopter accident in Brovary” in a tweet Wednesday.

“Minister Denys Monastyrsky was a great friend of the EU. We share our deepest condolences with the families of the victims, President @ZelenskyyUa, PM @Denys_Shmyhal and the people of #Ukraine,” Michel’s tweet said.

Covered bodies on the ground at the scene where a helicopter crashed in Brovary, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 18.

Nine of the 18 victims of the Brovary?helicopter crash identified so far were locals “bringing their children to the kindergarten,” said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration.

All nine people on board the helicopter died in the crash, and officials put the number of total victims at 18 in their latest update.

However, that number may rise, according to Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv region military administration.

“There is currently no information on the number of missing children,” Kuleba told reporters at the scene of the crash.

“Identification is ongoing. Parents are coming, lists are being compiled.”

US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke on the phone Tuesday night, with the conversation focusing on support for Ukraine, according to Germany’s chancellery.

Both leaders agreed that their support ”must be effective, sustained and closely coordinated,” said Steffen Hebestreit, government spokesman for Scholz, in a statement.

At the beginning of January, Washington and Berlin jointly agreed to send infantry fighting vehicles to support Ukraine in the war against Russia.

Biden announced that the US intended to supply Ukraine with another round of security assistance, including Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

Scholz said that Germany would provide Ukraine with Marder infantry fighting vehicles and an additional Patriot air defense battery.

On Thursday, the United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and newly appointed German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius are set to meet in Berlin ahead of a key meeting with the Ukraine contact group at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday.

The meeting in Ramstein, hosted by Austin, will focus on more military aid for Ukraine.?

The site where a helicopter crashed in the town of?Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 18.

The death toll in the helicopter crash in Brovary has risen to 18, according to the head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration.

Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram that three of those killed where children following the crash near a kindergarten and a residential building in the Kyiv suburb. Kuleba added that 29 people are injured, including 15 children.

Among the dead is Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky and the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s leadership team.

Gerashchenko said: “We will always remember you. Your families will be cared for. Eternal memory to my friends.”

Debris from the helicopter crash in Brovary, Ukraine, on January 18.

The helicopter that crashed was a Eurocopter EC225 “Super Puma,” a CNN producer on the ground has confirmed after seeing remnants of flight manuals among the debris.

Minister of Internal Affairs, Denis Monastyrsky decorates a serviceman with the Medal of Defender of the Fatherland at Michailovskyi Square in front of Saint Michail Monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 14.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky is among three senior officials killed in the Brovary helicopter crash, Ukrainian National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said.

At least 16 people died in the crash, nine of whom were aboard the helicopter when it went down near a kindergarten and residential building in the Kyiv region, Klymenko said earlier.

Medics and emergency personnel work at the site a where a helicopter crashed in the town of Brovary, outside Kyiv,?Ukraine, on January 18.

At least 16 people have been killed after a helicopter crashed in a Kyiv suburb on Wednesday, Ukrainian police said.

National Police chief Ihor Klymenko said nine of the dead had been onboard the aircraft, which crashed near a kindergarten and residential building in the eastern suburb of Brovary.

Two of those killed were children, he said.

Another 22 people are in hospital, including 10 children, he added.

A unspecified number of casualties have been reported after a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten in a Kyiv suburb on Wednesday, a senior Ukrainian official said.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said in a social media post that “the number of reports of victims in Brovary is increasing.”

The head of the Kyiv regional military administration said earlier that there were a number of injured people, without providing further details.

The site where a helicopter crashed in the town of?Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 18.

A helicopter crashed near a kindergarten and a residential building in the Ukrainian city of Brovary in the Kyiv region on Wednesday, according to?Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv regional military administration.?

Kuleba said there are injured people, but did not give further details on how many or the degree of injuries.?

Paramedics, the police and firefighters are responding at the scene, he added.?

This post has been updated with additional information.

People lay flowers at the coffin of Mykhailo Korenovsky, a boxing coach and father killed in a Russian missile strike on an apartment building on Tuesday in Dnipro.

More than 9,000 civilians, including 453 children,?have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began last February, Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential staff,?told?the?World Economic Forum?on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Ukrainian presidential office.

According to the?senior presidential aide, Ukraine has also registered 80,000 crimes committed by Russian forces during the invasion.

Yermak urged the international community to establish a Special International Tribunal?to hold Russia’s leadership accountable for “the crime of aggression,”?as the International Criminal Court does not have the relevant jurisdiction, the statement said.?

He also called?for the development of mechanisms that?would allow the confiscation of Russian assets to pay for war damages.

Russia has expanded its list of blacklisted European Union officials in response to the EU’s ninth round of sanctions imposed in December, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.?

Those now barred from entering Russia include?senior officials?from military agencies?of EU countries involved in the training of Ukrainian troops, the statement said.?

It also includes?European state-run and commercial entities that manufacture and supply weapons and military equipment to Kyiv, and citizens of EU countries “who engage in systematic public anti-Russian rhetoric,” the statement added.?

The ministry did not mention specific names of individuals or entities.

Some background: The EU sanctions imposed in December added almost 200 individuals and entities to an asset freeze list, including Russian military members, defense firms, politicians and Russian proxy authorities in occupied areas of Ukraine, the European Commission said at the time.?

Lawyer Brynjulf Risnes is representing former Wagner defector Andrey Medvedev in Norway.

A lawyer for former Wagner commander Andrey Medvedev, who is seeking asylum in Norway after refusing to renew his service with the Russian military group, said the possibility his client could be charged with war crimes “is being thoroughly analyzed.”

Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday, lawyer Brynjulf Risnes said potential war crimes charges against Medvedev were “a thought that is unavoidable,” but added “it’s a fact that he himself says, of course, that he didn’t have any contact with any civilians.”

A spokesperson for Norway’s Police Security Service confirmed to CNN Monday that Medvedev was in Norway and seeking asylum.

In an interview with a Russian activist who helps people seek asylum abroad, Medvedev said he feared for his life after refusing to renew his service with Wagner.

Medvedev said he was afraid of being executed in the same manner as another Wagner defector who was killed on camera with a sledgehammer.

The mercenary group, headed by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, has emerged as?a key player?in?Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?— recently doing much of the fighting in the small eastern town of?Soledar.

The White House teased that additional Ukrainian aid could be announced “as soon as the end of this week,” while vowing to work to hold President Vladimir Putin responsible for any war crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of the country.??

“I suspect that you will continue to hear coming from the United States additional packages of security assistance, additional weapons and capabilities for Ukraine —?perhaps as soon as the end of this week,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.?

Kirby didn’t answer when asked if the package would include tanks for the Ukrainians, saying he didn’t “want to get ahead of things we haven’t announced yet,” but he said the US was focused “on trying to make sure that we are giving Ukraine what they need in the fight that they’re in.”

He was also asked if the Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro, Ukraine, that killed dozens, including six children, was a war crime.

Kirby said the US had been “very, very clear and honest about the fact that the Russian Armed Forces continue to commit atrocities and war crimes” and would work with the international community to hold Russia accountable.?

“It is just egregious to look at what Mr. Putin did here over the last 48 hours or so in hitting an apartment complex with no military value whatsoever,” he said. “It wasn’t about knocking out power or water. It was about killing innocent civilians while they were at home.”?

The Netherlands plans to join the US and Germany in sending a Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday.

“We have the intention to join what you are doing with Germany on the Patriots project, so the air defense system. I think that is important that we join that,” Rutte said, adding that he’s already discussed the issue with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr?Zelensky.

A Dutch defense ministry spokesperson declined to comment beyond Rutte’s statement.

Biden and Rutte “reaffirmed the historic ties and shared values that link” the US and the Netherlands when they met Tuesday, the White House said, in a readout of the meeting.?

The two leaders, “reviewed our steadfast political, security, economic, and humanitarian support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal war of aggression, including our efforts to hold Russia accountable for its abuses and for the war crimes committed by Russian forces,” according to the readout. They also discussed “growing cooperation on other foreign policy priorities, including our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

More on the missile system:?The?Patriot’s radar system?combines “surveillance, tracking, and engagement functions in one unit,” a description from the?Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS)?says, which makes it stand out among other air defense systems. The system’s engagements with incoming aerial threats are “nearly autonomous” aside from needing a “final launch decision” from the humans operating it. The Patriot —?an acronym for Phased Array Tracking Radar for intercept on Target —?system is considered one of the most capable long-range air defense systems on the market.?

CNN’s Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this post.

The US Defense Department confirmed that “upwards of 90 to 100 Ukrainians” have all arrived at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and have begun their training on the Patriot missile system.

On Monday, the US Army base announced that Ukrainian troops had arrived at the location to begin training.?CNN was first to report?that the training was set to begin as soon as this week.

Fort Sill is home to the Fires Center of Excellence where the US conducts Patriot training for its own military and other countries.?

The training will take “several months” on the advanced, but complex long-range aerial defense system, according to Pentagon officials. It’s not clear how much the military can accelerate the training program.

Ukrainian soldiers digging trenches in Bakhmut.

An excavator gouges huge chunks of rich brown earth by the roadside, depositing the dirt at the edge of the lengthening trench.

Soldiers shovel more dirt out of the trench, well inside the city of?Bakhmut?in Ukraine’s eastern?Donetsk?region.

The officer in charge, who gives his name only as Valentin, insists the trench is just a precautionary measure, and that the fighting in Soledar, just 15 kilometers (9 miles) to the north, remains back and forth.

The situation in Soledar remains unclear. Days ago, the leader of the Russian private military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced that his group had control of the entire Soledar area. Ukrainian officials dispute the claim. This CNN team, which has been to the Soledar area several times in recent days saw that, regardless of the various claims, Ukrainian forces are on the defensive.

Dmytro told CNN, “This is my land,” he said. “I won’t leave.” He said he lost his leg when he was young.

Fighting around Bakhmut has raged for months — but has eased slightly as Russian forces have focused their efforts on Soledar. If the battle there is in its final stages, it’s widely assumed the Russians will renew their push to take Bakhmut.

Ukrainian officials say perhaps only 10% of the pre-war population remains in Bakhmut. On the western side of the city, which slopes down to a valley out of view of Russian positions, some civilians try to carry on as best they can.

Read more here.

Ukraine’s top general said he had his first ever in-person meeting with his US counterpart Gen. Mark Milley in Poland on Tuesday.

Milley and Zaluzhnyi discussed “the unprovoked and ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine,” according to a readout of the meeting provided by the US general’s office.

Later this week, Milley will attend the next meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany, when the US and approximately 50 other countries come together to pledge new support to Ukraine.?On Monday, Milley saw the newly expanded combined arms training of Ukrainian forces in Germany.

“The Chairman reaffirmed unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to the readout.

The meeting between the generals came one day after Ukrainian troops arrived at Fort Sill in Oklahoma to?begin training on the Patriot missile system, according to the?US Army base.

Europe?is?scrambling to buy diesel fuel from Russia before a?ban on imports?comes into force in early February, but the frantic stockpiling is unlikely to prevent a new price shock for truckers, drivers and businesses.

In the first two weeks of January, European countries snapped up almost 8 million barrels of Russian diesel, according to energy data provider Vortexa, roughly on par with imports this time last year before Russia invaded Ukraine. Imports in the fourth quarter of 2022 were up nearly 19% on the same period the previous year.

Since Russia’s invasion in February last year, the European Union has made a huge effort to wean itself off Moscow’s oil and?natural gas supplies. That has included a ban on all Russian seaborne crude oil imports, which came into force in December.

EU countries drastically reduced their imports of crude from Russia ahead of the ban, but that isn’t happening with diesel because it’s much harder to find alternative sources of the fuel.

Read more here.