Ukraine's interior minister and his deputy were among 18 people killed on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed near a nursery outside the capital Kyiv, police said, without specifying the cause of the crash.

The deadly incident came as Ukraine edged closer to winning approval for German-made modern battle tanks to confront Russia's invading forces. Follow our live blog for the latest updates on the war in Ukraine. 

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, the regional governor said.

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.

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.

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)