Ukraine’s interior minister and 13 others were killed in a helicopter crash near a kindergarten outside Kyiv yesterday, in a blow to the war-battered nation’s government.

Over 9,000 civilians, including 453 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last February, a senior Ukrainian presidential aide said yesterday.

The Kremlin said yesterday that tanks Britain plans to send to Ukraine “will burn”, warning the West that supplying a new round of more advanced weapons to Ukraine would not change the outcome of the war.

Ukraine said there was little hope of pulling any more survivors from the rubble of an apartment block in the city of Dnipro yesterday, a day after the building was hit during a major Russian missile attack, with dozens of people expected to have died.

Russia unleashed a new wave of major attacks on Ukraine on Saturday, hitting energy infrastructure across the country and killing at least 12 people in a missile strike on a nine-storey apartment building in the city of Dnipro, officials said.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday pledged to provide Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, making it the first Western country to supply the heavy tanks Kyiv has been calling for.

Russia yesterday said its forces had taken control of the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, in what would be a rare success for Moscow after months of battlefield reverses, but Kyiv said its troops were still fighting in the town.

Ukraine said yesterday its forces were fighting to retain control of Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region but cautioned it was coming up against “difficult” resistance from Russian troops.

Russian and Ukrainian forces were engaged in intense fighting yesterday over the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine -- a stepping stone in Moscow’s push to capture the entire Donbas region -- with the Russians appearing to have the upper hand.

Ukrainian forces are facing waves of assaults by Russian forces on the small salt-mining town of Soledar, Kyiv officials said yesterday, as Moscow strives to make its first breakthrough in the east in months.

Russia’s bombing of regions in eastern Ukraine killed at least two people overnight, local officials said yesterday, after Moscow ended a self-declared Christmas ceasefire and vowed to push on with combat until it reaches a victory over its neighbour.

Russia's overnight bombing of regions in eastern Ukraine killed at least one, local officials said on Sunday, after Moscow ended a self-declared Christmas ceasefire and vowed to push on with combat until it reaches a victory over its neighbour.

Ukrainians and Russians yesterday marked Orthodox Christmas under the shadow of war, as fighting persisted despite Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin unilaterally ordering his forces to pause attacks.

Artillery fire could be heard from the front line in Ukraine yesterday, even after the official start of a unilateral ceasefire declared by Moscow and rejected by Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday ordered a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine to run during Orthodox Christmas, a move that war-battered Kyiv swiftly branded as “hypocrisy”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a ceasefire in Ukraine over Orthodox Christmas, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was planning to call up more troops for a major new offensive, even as Moscow was facing some of its biggest internal criticism of the war over a strike that killed scores of fresh conscripts.

Russia's defence ministry on Wednesday blamed the illegal use of mobile phones by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that it said killed 89 servicemen, raising the reported death toll significantly.

Russian nationalists and some lawmakers have demanded punishment for commanders they accused of ignoring dangers as anger grew over the killing of dozens of Russian soldiers in one of the Ukraine war’s deadliest strikes.

Russia yesterday admitted dozens of its soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian strike on Russian-controlled territory in a bloody New Year’s weekend for both sides of the conflict.