Ukraine: At least sixteen people, including the interior minister of Ukraine Denys Monastyrsky and other senior officials, were killed when a helicopter crashed in a suburb outside the capital Kyiv, said Ihor Klymenko, the national police chief.
Helicopter crashed in Ukraine
Earlier on Wednesday, the helicopter crashed near a kindergarten and a residential building in the town of Brovary on Kyiv’s eastern outskirts, said Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the military administration of the Kyiv area.
“At the time of the tragedy, there were children and the staff in the kindergarten. At the moment, everyone was evacuated,” Kuleba wrote on Telegram.
Klymenko, Ukraine’s national police chief, said in a statement that Denys Monastyrskiy, the interior minister, as well as eight others were aboard the helicopter. Deputy minister Yevhen Yenin and Yuriy Lubkovych, the state secretary, also perished in the collision, said Klymenko.
Nine of the 16 victims were inside the helicopter on Wednesday when it crashed. 16 people, including the two kids, were confirmed dead. 22 people, including 10 children, are currently hospitalised, according to Klymenko.
Klymenko said on Facebook that the helicopter belonged to Ukraine’s national emergency service.
42-year-old Interior Minister Monastyrsky was a prominent member of President Volodymy Zelensky’s cabinet who played a key role in alerting the public to the deaths caused by Russian missile strikes since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Although there is no evidence that the crash was anything other than an accident, Monastyrsky is the most prominent Ukrainian casualty since the start of Russia’s invasion.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, stated that the minister had been en route to a battle “hot spot” when his helicopter crashed.
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