(Reuters) – Germany will allow German-made tanks to be sent to Ukraine to help defend against Russia if the United States agrees to send its own tanks, a Berlin government source told Reuters.
HELICOPTER CRASH
* Ukraine’s interior minister and a child were among at least 14 people killed when a helicopter crashed into a nursery and set it ablaze in a suburb of the capital Kyiv.
* The national police chief said aside from Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, 42, others killed in the crash included his first deputy, Yevheniy Yenin, and the ministry’s state secretary.
* It was not immediately clear what caused the helicopter to crash. President Zelenskiy has asked for an investigation.
DIPLOMACY
* Zelenskiy said in a video address to the World Economic Forum in Davos that Western supplies of tanks and air defence units should come more quickly and be delivered faster than Russia was able to carry out attacks.
* Canada has summoned Russia’s ambassador to Ottawa over attacks against civilians in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro that killed at least 45 people, including several children.
CONFLICT
* The United States aims to break the dynamic of grinding warfare and near-frozen Ukrainian front lines with newly announced military capabilities, a senior Pentagon official said.
* Russian President Putin, visiting an air defence factory in St Petersburg, said Russia’s military industrial might meant “victory is assured, I have no doubt about it.”
* Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov accused the United States of preparing the ground for the conflict in Ukraine as part of what he called a hybrid war against Moscow. He also said Moscow saw no prospects of peace talks.
(Compiled by Grant McCool)
