Officials in Ukraine say the death toll from a helicopter crash earlier has risen to 18.

The helicopter came down close to the nursery and a residential building in Brovary to the northeast of the capital, local officials said.

The regional governor said multiple people - including children - have been hurt.

The governor of Kyiv, Oleksiy Kuleba, has said this on Telegram:

“11.40am. In Brovary, a rescue operation is underway at the scene of the tragedy. Debris analysis is underway. Children from the kindergarten are in another educational institution, and the relevant services work with them. The circumstances of the disaster are currently being investigated. All emergency services are on site.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has used the second anniversary of his incarceration to reinforce his promise to keep opposing the Kremlin, as his family and allies launched a campaign to free him.

Mr Navalny was arrested exactly two years ago as he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had been treated for poisoning with a deadly Soviet-era nerve agent in what he and some Western nations said was a state assassination attempt. The Kremlin denied involvement.

Andrew Osborn reports:

Officials gave no immediate account of the cause of the crash and there was no immediate comment from Russia.

Interior minister Denys Monastyrsky, responsible for the police and security inside Ukraine, would be the most senior Ukrainian official to die since the war began.

National police chief Ihor Klymenko said Mr Monastyrsky had been killed along with his deputy and other senior ministry officials.

A helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb Wednesday killed 16 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and two children, according to Ihor Klymenko, chief of Ukraine’s National Police.

Nine of those killed were aboard the emergency services helicopter that crashed in Brovary, Kyiv’s eastern suburb, Klymenko said.

A total of 22 people were injured, including 10 children. Earlier, officials and media reports said the helicopter crashed near a kindergarten.

Full report:

The United States sent a munitions stockpile stored in Israel to Ukraine for use in the war against Russia, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, saying the decision was made last year when Washington’s Middle East ally was under a centrist premier.

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.

While it has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel has limited its assistance to Kyiv to humanitarian aid and protective gear, while ruling out a direct weapons supply.

The Israelis want to maintain a coordination hotline with Russia, set up in 2015, over their military strikes on suspected Iranian targets in Syria, where Moscow has a garrison. They are also mindful of the welfare of Russia’s big Jewish community.

The Israeli official did not know if any further such U.S. arms transfers from Israel were expected under conservative prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office on 29 December and who, during previous terms, had cultivated a personal rapport with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

The US Embassy in Israel had no immediate comment on the New York Times report. Ukrainian ambassador Yevgen Korniychuk told Reuters by phone that he had "no idea" if the report was true. The Russian embassy declined comment.

A helicopter crashed near a nursery and a residential building in the town of Brovary outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday, and there were casualties, the local governor said.

"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.

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 said on Tuesday.

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.

Britain and the US have reaffirmed their support for Ukraine in its struggle against the Russian invasion.

After talks at the State Department in Washington with foreign secretary James Cleverly, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said they remained committed to backing Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.

Mr Blinken welcomed Rishi Suank’s decision to supply British Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine and said he expected the US would be announcing further assistance in the coming days.

“We have continuously provided what Ukraine needs and we are doing it in a way that makes sure we are responsive to what is actually happening on the battlefield as well as projecting where it might go,” he said.

“We are determined to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to succeed on the battlefield.”

Mr Cleverly said the US and UK have worked “hand in glove” - along with other allies - to support Ukraine since the start of the conflict.

“Never in living memory has Russia been more isolated and the Atlantic alliance more united,” he said. “If Putin believed that the world would succumb to Ukraine fatigue and lose the will to resist his ambitions then that was once again another colossal misjudgment on his part.”

Ukrainian forces have likely established new defensive lines to the west, the British defence ministry said today.

“By the end of 16 January [Monday], Ukrainian forces had highly likely withdrawn from the Donbas town of Soledar, leaving Russian military and Wagner Group proxy forces in control,” the ministry said.

It added: “Russia’s advance on Soledar primarily consisted of Wagner forces and was a supporting operation aimed to enable the eventual envelopment of the larger settlement of Bakhmut. One of Ukraine’s two main supply routes into Bakhmut is now under increasing pressure.”

The British defence ministry pointed to imagery showing that since the start of January 2023, the south and east of Bakhmut has continued to be subjected to intense artillery bombardment.

Ukrainian forces almost certainly continue to defend against Russian forces on the outskirts of the city, the MoD said.