Ukraine helicopter crash kills interior minister in Kyiv as fighting rages on in east

Ukrainian servicemen prepare a Polish self-propelled howitzer Krab to fire toward Russian positions, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, on a frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine January 17, 2023. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak

BROVARY, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukraine's interior minister and a child were among at least 14 people killed on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed into a nursery and set it ablaze in a suburb of the capital Kyiv.

Separately, Ukraine said its forces again blunted Russian attempts to advance on the frontline city of Bakhmut hundreds of kilometres (miles) away in the east, where both sides have taken heavy losses for scant gain in trench warfare since November.