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The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.
9:29 p.m.: Canada will donate 200 armored personnel carriers to Ukrainian forces to meet "a specific Ukrainian request for these vehicles", Canada's defense minister announced Wednesday during a visit to Kyiv, Agence France-Presse reported.
"The vehicles offer state-of-the-art best-in-class technology and weapons can easily be mounted on them," said Anita Anand, sitting next to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
The Canadian announcement is part of the $373 million in military aid announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Canada has committed more than $1 billion in military aid to Kyiv, including armored vehicles, howitzers, winter clothing, drone cameras and ammunition.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted his gratitude for the donation.
8:37 p.m.: Russian crude oil exports to the European Union fell by 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 0.9 million bpd in December from the previous month, Reuters reported, citing International Energy Agency data.
The EU imposed a ban on maritime Russian crude oil imports starting December 5, and G-7 countries set a price cap on Russian seaborne exports at $60 per barrel. The sanctions follow Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Most of December's EU-destined seaborne shipments, 160,000 bpd out of 230,000 bpd, went to Bulgaria, which has an exemption from the import ban, while one cargo went to Italy and two to the Netherlands, the IEA said in its monthly oil market report on January 18.
From January, only Bulgaria can continue seaborne crude imports from Russia out of 27 EU member states, the IEA added.
7:44 p.m.: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov drew a sharp rebuke from the White House on Wednesday for saying the United States had assembled 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.
"How dare he compare anything to the Holocaust, anything. Let alone a war that they started," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
Lavrov, who caused an international furor 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."
The 'Final Solution' was Hitler's blueprint for the Holocaust, which led to the systematic murder of 6 million Jews, as well as members of other minorities.
7 p.m.: Defense leaders from roughly 50 countries will confer on Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the latest in a series of meetings to discuss Ukraine and its military needs.
Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, spoke with Tatiana Vorozhko of VOA’s Ukrainian Service on Wednesday on several topics, including security assistance and Friday's meeting at Ramstein.
Markarova said Ukraine believes the U.S. and NATO will supply more weapons.
"Every phase of the battle requires different capabilities," Markarova said. Citing the missile attack on an apartment building on Saturday in Dnipro that killed at least 45 people, she said her country needs more air defenses to shield civilian targets, including its energy infrastructure, schools and hospitals.
She called for more firepower for the difficult battles in the east and the south.
"So whatever advanced weapons, whatever artillery firepower, armored vehicles and tanks we would be grateful for all of that," she said.
6:10 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has written a letter inviting Chinese leader Xi Jinping for talks, which was handed over in Davos to the Chinese delegation, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy 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.
During a speech on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, Zelenska said she had a letter for Xi but she gave few details during a press conference on Wednesday.
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.
5 p.m.:
4:20 p.m.: The Ukrainian military continues its counteroffensive around the area of Kreminna, a strategic logistics hub in Ukraine's Luhansk region. Russian forces are said to be dug in deep in the area. Western-supplied weapons, including self-propelled howitzers, are helping Ukrainian troops in their efforts to recapture territories occupied by enemy troops. Current Time, a co-production of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and VOA, has this report.
3:35 p.m.: Russian government officials were not invited to this year's Munich Security Conference, the man chairing the annual event that brings together the world's defense and security elite said on Wednesday in an interview, Reuters reported.
The conference, known as "Davos for defense," will take place in the southern German city on February 17-19, days before the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"We do not want to offer a stage for those who have stamped over international law," Christoph Heusgen told Reuters. The Kremlin last year chose not to send a representative in the first no-show in years.
2:30 p.m.: President Joe Biden expressed condolences to the families of those killed in a helicopter crash in Ukraine on Wednesday and said the United States would honor the interior minister who was on board with continued commitment to preserving Ukraine's democracy.
He praised Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi's efforts to fight Russian aggression and push for reforms to strengthen Ukraine's democracy.
"We will continue to honor that legacy through efforts to strengthen Ukraine's institutions, and in our unfailing partnership with the people of Ukraine to keep the flame of freedom bright," Biden said in a statement.
2 p.m.:
1:45 p.m.: The Biden administration is providing $125 million for electrical parts and other supplies to help repair crews in Ukraine keep up with Russian strikes pounding the country’s electrical system, the U.S. international development aid chief said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
The U.S. Agency for International Development plans to use the money to procure backup power for Kyiv’s water and district-heating systems. The funding also will help replenish supplies of gas turbines, transformers and other vital power equipment.
USAID administrator Samantha Power, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, announced the funding in a meeting with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska and others. USAID said in a statement that the money comes from the supplemental Ukraine funding approved by Congress last month.
Russian forces since October have intensified strikes on Ukraine’s electrical grid and other critical infrastructure, repeatedly plunging Ukrainians into darkness and winter cold. Utility workers and others are scrambling during what have been nearly weekly barrages on infrastructure to restore electricity and heating.
1:10 p.m.: During a high-level panel discussion called “Restoring Peace and Security” held at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines called the war in Ukraine a “grinding conflict” and not a stalemate, while NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Russia is planning new offensives, and Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Ukraine needs more assistance now because the next crucial moments of this war coming in "maybe months, maybe weeks." VOA’s national security correspondent Jeff Seldin shared the highlights on Twitter.
12:50 p.m.: After months of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, some locals try to rebuild their small businesses by way of emergency services’ power supplies as the violence continues. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Kyiv in Ukraine.
12:30 p.m.: A court in Russia's western region of Bryansk on January 17 sentenced 23-year-old Kirill Belousov to five years in prison for planning to join Ukraine's armed forces and fight against Russia in the ongoing war in Ukraine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
The Bryansk regional court said the defendant pleaded guilty.
Belousov is the third person in Russia to be handed a prison term for their intention to fight alongside Ukrainian forces since Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion in February 2022.
11:45 a.m.: Ukraine’s State Emergency Service revised downward the initially reported death toll of the helicopter crash in Brovary, now saying that 14 people died, including one child, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Search and rescue operations were completed by late afternoon, it said.
Rescuers and officials earlier reported that the total number of deaths was 16 to 18, including three or four children, the media organization reported.
The top leadership of the interior ministry, who were in the helicopter, died in the crash.
11:25 a.m.: Ukraine needs a "significant increase" in weapons at a pivotal moment in Russia's invasion and such support is the only way to a negotiated peaceful solution, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Defense leaders from around 50 countries and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will hold talks at Germany's Ramstein Air Base on Friday, the latest in a series of meetings since Russian forces swept into Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.
"This is a pivotal moment in the war and the need for a significant increase in support for Ukraine," Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"If we want a negotiated peaceful solution tomorrow we need to provide more weapons today."
11:10 a.m.:
10:50 a.m.: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz highlighted his country’s and others’ financial and military support to Ukraine and said that “we will continue to support Ukraine — for as long as necessary,” The Associated Press reported.
In a speech Wednesday to the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland, he pointed to efforts by Berlin and others to kick off a long-term rebuilding process for Ukraine but said that “in order for the war to end, Russia’s aggression must fail.”
He listed some of the equipment Germany has pledged to provide — including air-defense systems and most recently armored personnel carriers, “marking a profound turning point in German foreign and security policy.”
But he didn’t make any new pledges. Germany faces mounting pressure to supply Leopard 2 battle tanks or at least to authorize allies to deliver their own stocks of the German-made vehicles.
When asked about sending tanks to Ukraine, Scholz reiterated that Germany was one of the top suppliers of military equipment to the war-torn country, just behind the U.S. and Britain.
10:35 a.m.:
10:20 a.m.: Russian forces kept focusing their offensive efforts on Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk, Ukraine's military has said, as Kyiv again urged its Western allies to speed up approval for the delivery of advanced heavy weaponry including modern tanks, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
The Ukrainian military General Staff said in its daily report that Bakhmut and Avdiyivka, where heavy fighting has been going on for months, remained Moscow's main targets in Donetsk, while the settlement of Bilohoryvka in the neighboring Luhansk region had also come under intensified attacks over the past 24 hours.
Russian troops carried out six missile strikes over the same interval, three of which hit civilian infrastructure targets in the cities of Kupyansk and Kramatorsk, as well as 14 air strikes and 95 rocket salvos, the General Staff said.
It also warned that the threat of Russian air and missile strikes on civilian objects remains high throughout Ukraine. Russia over the past several months has relentlessly targeted civilian settlements and energy infrastructure that plunge millions of Ukrainians into dark and cold in the middle of winter.
The latest attacks came after a Russian missile strike on an apartment building that housed around 1,700 people in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed at least 45 people.
More than 9,000 civilians, including 453 children, have been killed since the war began last February, Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, told the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos on January 17. The United Nations has put the civilian toll at more than 7,000.
10:05 a.m.: When Russia invaded Ukraine, the military and private citizens started using Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink, which eventually became key to Ukraine's resistance. From Kyiv, Myroslava Gongadze tells the story of one Ukrainian engineer who volunteers to support the technology and the soldiers who use it.
There were nine people on board, including six members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and three members of the crew of the State Emergency Service. The list of those on board included Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Denys Monastyrskyi; First Deputy Minister Yevhen Yenin; State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lubkovich; Deputy Head of the Patronage Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Tetiana Shutiak; Head of the Protection Department of the Department of Internal Security of the National Police Mykhailo Pavlushko; the leading inspector of the Department of Communication of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Mykola Anatskyi; the helicopter commander Oleksandr Vasylenko; the pilot, Kostiantyn Kovalenko; and the on-board mechanic Ivan Kasianov.
As of late Wednesday, 17 people were reported dead, including one child, while 25 people, including 11 children, were injured and hospitalized, according to local officials. However, casualty figures were expected to change as more information became available.
The helicopter was heading to the war zone in the eastern Kharkiv region, according to the government. Eyewitnesses say that the helicopter circled in the air, then caught on fire and flew toward a two-story building before it crashed. The Security Service of Ukraine said it is considering several potential reasons for the helicopter crash, which include a violation of flight rules, or technical malfunction of the helicopter, or deliberate actions to destroy the vehicle.
9:35 a.m.:
9:20 a.m.: Europeans have dialed down their heating this winter, apparently heeding government calls to conserve energy amid the Ukraine crisis, with some delaying switching it on by almost a month and setting the temperature lower, Reuters reported, quoting recent data.
The data, from hundreds of thousands of smart thermometers installed in households across the continent by Munich-based company Tado, shows that as temperatures dropped, households responded to dire warnings about higher heating costs.
People and businesses across Europe are increasing their use of such smart thermometers to keep an eye on how much gas they are using. These are sometimes linked to an energy provider's tariff structure to smooth demand and reduce peak costs. Germany has made them obligatory in new builds.
9:05 a.m.:
8:45 a.m.: President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia's powerful military-industrial complex was ramping up production and was one of the main reasons why Russia would prevail in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Putin, speaking to workers at a factory in St Petersburg that makes air defense systems, said overall military equipment output was rising even as demand for it was growing because of what he calls Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.
"In terms of achieving the end result and the victory that is inevitable, there are several things ... It is the unity and cohesion of the Russian and multinational Russian people, the courage and heroism of our fighters ... and of course the work of the military-industrial complex and factories like yours and people like you," said Putin.
"Victory is assured, I have no doubt about it."
Putin said Russian arms companies manufactured about the same number of anti-aircraft missiles as the rest of the world combined, and three times more than the United States.
8:30 a.m.: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the United States was attempting to "contain" both Russia and China with the help of other countries, but they were alert to its "games," Reuters reported.
Lavrov told a news conference that the West saw both countries as a threat - Russia right now, and China in the longer term as a systemic rival. He said Washington was not powerful enough to keep in check both countries at once, so was mobilizing Europe, Japan and others to join it.
At the same time, he said, the West was 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.
His comments underlined the strategic importance to Moscow of its relationship with China at a time when its army is struggling in Ukraine and its economic links with the West have been wrecked by successive waves of sanctions.
8:05 a.m.:
7:50 a.m.: Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said on Tuesday she did not talk to her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets in Turkey last week about a possible prisoner exchange, according to Reuters.
Turkish ombudsman Seref Malkoc said on Monday that Ukraine conveyed to Russia a list of 800 people and that the Russian ombudsman provided a list of 200 to be swapped.
"In my negotiations with Ombudsman of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets in Ankara there was never any talk of exchanges, and I always emphasize that these issues are within the competence of the Russian Ministry of Defense," Moskalkova said on the Telegram messaging app.
"Moreover, I believe that such an unequal exchange cannot be considered fair."
A spokesperson for Malkoc later insisted that Russian and Ukrainian ombudsmen exchanged lists in Ankara, but said the Turkish side did not retain any copy of those lists.
7:25 a.m.:
7:10 a.m.: The increasingly prominent head of the Russian private military group Wagner on Wednesday took aim at the Kremlin administration for failing to block the U.S.-owned video sharing platform YouTube, Reuters reports.
"YouTube is the information plague of our time," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement posted on his Telegram channel, alleging, without evidence, that 40% of the videos on the platform were "politicised and directed against Russia".
He said there were two reasons why it had not been banned in Russia, which has clamped down on foreign media since invading Ukraine in February: that it was supposedly indispensable for ordinary citizens and, primarily, the opposition of President Vladimir Putin's administration.
"We have a huge number of people on Staraya Square in the Presidential Administration who think only about one thing: if only Russia lost the war as soon as possible, if only the Americans would come and regulate us as soon as possible," Prigozhin said.
6:50 a.m.:
6:35 a.m.: Asked by the President of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Borge Brende, if he thinks there will be an end to the Russian war in Ukraine this year, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he does not see an end to the war in the immediate future, VOA’s U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer reported.
“I do not see a chance at the present moment to have a serious peace negotiation between the two parties,” Guterres said.
He said the solution needs to be based on international law and the respect of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and the conditions for that are not currently ripe.
Guterres said in the meantime, the United Nations is focusing its efforts on lessening the impact of the conflict on both the Ukrainian people and the international community.
He pointed to successes in extracting civilians earlier in the war from the Azovstal steel plant, the exchange of prisoners of war on both sides, getting international nuclear inspectors into Ukrainian facilities, and facilitating the exports of Ukrainian grain and Russian grain and fertilizer to international markets.
“So we are trying to address the consequences,” the secretary-general said. “But for the moment, I don’t think that we have a chance to promote or to mediate a serious negotiation to achieve peace in the short term.”
Of the global situation overall, including the fight against climate change, the 73-year-old U.N. chief was even more bleak.
“Let’s be clear, I think we are in the worst situation I remember in my lifetime.”
6:20 a.m.: At the scene of the helicopter crash outside Ukraine’s capital, which was near a kindergarten, at least four bodies on the ground were covered by reflective sheets. Officials cleared chunks of charred, mangled wreckage, lying against an apartment building and in a playground. Some walls were partly demolished and blackened, The Associated Press reported.
“It is too early to talk about the reasons,” for the crash, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Forces, Yurii Ihnat, told a television channel. He said an investigation could take some time.
The helicopter was a Super Puma supplied by France, he added.
A French defense official said the helicopter was sold to Ukraine in 2019 and was not part of equipment that France has provided since the start of the war. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be named, according to ministry policy.
The Security Service of Ukraine is conducting an investigation, prosecutor general Andriy Kostin said. “For now, we are considering all possible versions of the helicopter crash accident,” he said on Telegram.
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, who oversaw Ukraine’s police and emergency services, is the most senior official to die since Russia invaded nearly 11 months ago.
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman called the 42-year-old Monastyrskyi “a leading light in supporting the Ukrainian people during Putin’s illegal invasion.” She said she was “struck by his determination, optimism and patriotism.
6:10 a.m.:
6 a.m.: Condolence messages following a helicopter crash Wednesday that claimed the lives of at least 18 people poured in on social media.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the crash a “terrible tragedy.” He said the exact number of casualties was still being determined, but that at the time of his post the dead included at least three children.
“The pain is unspeakable,” Zelenskyy said. He added that Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi and Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin, both killed during the crash, were “true Ukrainian patriots.”
U.N. Resident Coordinator for Ukraine Denise Brown said she was "deeply saddened by the tragic deaths.”
While the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, “we stand with the Ukrainian people in this moment of grief and wish those injured a swift recovery.”
Officials said the crash happened near a kindergarten in Brovary, a suburb east of Kyiv. It was not immediately clear what caused the helicopter to go down. Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post he had directed authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash.
5:45 a.m.: Russian police have detained four people at an improvised memorial for at least 45 people who were killed by a Russian strike on a residential building in Ukraine's Dnipro, a rights group said Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported.
AFP journalists earlier this week saw a handful of people laying flowers and children's toys at a statue of Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka in the Russian capital.
They also placed a photograph of the hollowed-out building in Dnipro, struck at the weekend.
The OVD-Info rights group, which monitors arrests in Russia, said two people were detained as they lay flowers at the statue.
"Two others who were nearby were also detained," the group said.
It said it did not know their names, saying only that one of them was a woman who came with her dog.
Ukraine has said 20 more people are missing in Dnipro following the weekend strike that ripped open the side of residential building in the central Ukraine city.
Russia has introduced strict laws that effectively ban criticism of its offensive in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has denied striking residential areas in Ukraine.
5:20 a.m.: Ukraine's prime minister on Wednesday said the death of Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi and two other senior officials in a helicopter crash near Kyiv was a "great loss" for the war-battered country, according to Agence France-Presse.
"A great loss for the government team and the entire state. My sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. I instructed (officials) to immediately create a special group for a detailed investigation of all the circumstances of the tragedy," Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Telegram.
5 a.m.: The helicopter that Ukraine's interior minister was travelling on Wednesday when it crashed near a kindergarten outside Kyiv was flying towards frontline regions in eastern Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported the presidency as saying.
"The purpose of the helicopter flight was to carry out work in one of the hotspots of our country where hostilities are ongoing. The interior minister was heading there," the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on local television.
4:45 a.m.: The European Union's chairman on Wednesday spoke in favor of the West providing tanks to Ukraine to help it face off against Russia's invasion.
"For nearly one year, Russia has pursued a strategy of destruction, a strategy of terror, trying to bomb the Ukrainian people into submission," said European Council President Charles Michel. "But Ukrainians are resisting."
"We, the EU, will continue to support them for as long as it takes. The time is now, they urgently need more equipment, and I am personally in favor of supplying tanks to Ukraine."
4:15 a.m.: Reuters updated the number of casualties as a result of a helicopter crash Wednesday morning to 18 people including three children, citing Ukrainian officials. The Associated Press also reported that the death toll has reached at least 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 29 people were also hurt, including 15 children.
The national police chief said that Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, who was appointed under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2021, was killed. His first deputy, Yevheniy Yenin, and the ministry's state secretary also died, he said.
"Unfortunately, this happened with a state emergency service helicopter which was fulfilling its task," Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Apostrof TV.
4 a.m.: President Tayyip Erdogan is aiming to extend his 20-year rule in elections that will decide, among other things, what role the country may play to ease conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East.
In this analysis on the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, which must be held by June, Reuters explores how the political process marks the biggest political challenge yet for Erdogan, who has domestically championed religious piety, military-backed diplomacy, and low interest rates. Should he lose, his opponents promise radical change.
In his foreign policy decisions, Erdogan's purchase of Russian air defenses triggered U.S. arms industry sanctions against Ankara, while his closeness to President Vladimir Putin led critics to question Turkey's commitment to the NATO Western defense alliance. Ankara's objections to NATO membership applications from Sweden and Finland have also raised tensions.
However, Turkey also brokered a deal for Ukrainian wheat exports, underlining the potential role Erdogan has staked in efforts to end the Ukraine war. It is not clear that a successor would enjoy the same profile he has created on the world stage — a point he is likely to stress in the election campaign.
3:25 a.m.: Sixteen people including Ukraine's interior minister and other senior ministry officials were killed in the crash, the national police chief said, according to Reuters.
Two children were among the dead and 10 of them were in hospital, officials said.
3 a.m.: According to Reuters, a police spokesperson told the Suspilne public broadcaster that at least five people were hurt and that there were also a number of dead. Reuters could not immediately reach her for comment by phone.
Videos shared on social media showed a burning building and people could be heard screaming. Reuters was unable immediately to verify the footage.
It was not immediately clear what caused the helicopter to crash. There was no immediate comment from Russia, and Ukrainian officials made no reference to any Russian attack in the area at the time.
2:40 a.m.: Reuters reported that a local governor has confirmed that a helicopter crashed near a nursery and a residential building in the town of Brovary outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday, and that there were 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.
2:25 a.m.: An aircraft crashed into a building in the Ukrainian town of Brovary near Kyiv on Wednesday, and emergency services rushed to the scene, Reuters cited a presidential aide as saying.
He said checks were being made on casualties. Videos shared on social media showed a burning building and said an object resembling a helicopter or drone had crashed into a nursery building. Reuters was unable immediately to verify the reports.
"We are finding out information about casualties and the circumstances," the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
2 a.m.: Reuters reported Russia's Gazprom said it will ship 32.6 million cubic meters of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Wednesday, a volume in line with recent days, but around 20% lower than daily shipments recorded in the final months of last year.
1:45 a.m.:
1:30 a.m.: Chemicals giant BASF unveiled a 7.3 billion euro ($7.9 billion) non-cash impairment on Wintershall Dea, after the oil and gas exploration joint venture decided to exit Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.
"Wintershall Dea will end its Russian activities. Continuing to operate in Russia is not tenable," Wintershall Dea Chief Executive Mario Mehren said.
A 72.7%-27.3% joint venture between BASF and Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's investment firm LetterOne, Wintershall Dea is one of Germany's companies most exposed to Russia and had up until now stopped short of pulling out. "Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine is incompatible with our values and has destroyed cooperation between Russia and Europe," Mehren said in a statement late on Tuesday.
BASF's Frankfurt-listed shares were down 3.7% following the news. A local trader said that investors may now fear a "harsh dividend cut."
Mehren said limitations the Russian government imposed on local assets owned by Western companies had made it impossible to operate properly "and resulted in an economic expropriation of the joint ventures in Russia."
Wintershall Dea's Russian activities include a 35% stake in the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field, which Gazprom (40%) and Austria's OMV (25%) co-own. Wintershall Dea also co-owns two Achimov natural gas production projects in Siberia, including Achimgaz — a 50-50 joint venture with Gazprom — and the 25-75 Achim Development venture. Wintershall Dea said its exit from Russia would be in line with local laws and regulation.
It also expects a 5.3 billion euro non-cash loss from the deconsolidation of its Russian joint venture and impairments on Russian-related activities, including its 15.5% stake in the damaged Gazprom-led Nord Stream pipeline and the WIGA Transport joint venture with Sefe, formerly known as Gazprom Germania.
As a result, BASF, which said the Nord Stream stake had been fully written down, flagged a 1.38 billion euro net loss for 2022, according to preliminary results also published on Tuesday, compared with a 5.52 billion profit in 2021. According to the Vara consensus of estimates the company provided, analysts had on average expected net profit of 4.77 billion euros. BASF's earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) likely declined by 15% in 2022 to 6.55 billion euros, also below the 6.84 billion analyst forecast.
Sales for the past year were up 11% at 87.32 billion euros, BASF, which is scheduled to release its annual 2022 results on February 24, citing higher prices and currency effects.
1:05 a.m.:
12:30 a.m.: The training of Ukrainian officers to operate the Patriot advanced long-range air defense system will last 10 weeks, Reuters reported citing Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
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 Tuesday on Ukraine's state Military Media Center Telegram messaging app.
12:01 a.m.: Ukraine has taken 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 defense missiles as its allies appear ready to rally for the next phase of the war.
Ukraine has relied primarily on Soviet-era T-72 tank variants, Reuters reported. Germany's Leopard 2 tank, operated by armies in about 20 countries, is regarded as one of the West's best. The tank weighs more than 60 tons, has a 120-millimeter smoothbore gun and can hit targets at a distance of up to five kilometers.
Ukraine says the tanks would give its troops the mobile firepower to drive Russian troops out in decisive battles. Germany has been the West's biggest holdout on pledging tanks, but a cabinet minister said on Tuesday the issue would be the first to be decided by new defense minister Boris Pistorius.
He will host U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday ahead of a meeting on Friday of dozens of defense ministers at Ramstein air base in Germany.
Western countries have provided a steady supply of weapons to Ukraine since Russia invaded last February 24 in what it calls a "special military operation" to protect its security because its neighbor grew increasingly close to the West.
Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of an unprovoked war to grab territory and to erase the independence of a fellow ex-Soviet republic.
Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
