January 18, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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."

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.