Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, three children among several died in a helicopter crash

BROVARY, Ukraine – Ukraine’s interior minister died Wednesday in a helicopter crash near the capital, killing at least 14 others, including other officials and three children, authorities said.

Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky, who oversaw Ukraine’s police and emergency services, became the highest-ranking official to die since the Russian invasion almost 11 months ago. His death, along with two others from his ministry, was the second disaster in four days to hit Ukraine after a Russian missile attack on an apartment building killed dozens of civilians.

Whether the accident near the kindergarten was an accident or related to the war has not yet been reported. There have been no recent reports of fighting in the Kyiv area.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the plane crash a “terrible tragedy” on a “black morning”.

“The pain is inexpressible,” he wrote on Telegram.

British Home Secretary Swella Braverman called Monastyrsky “a leader in support of the Ukrainian people during Putin’s illegal invasion.” She said she was “struck by his determination, optimism and patriotism.”

According to the head of the National Police of Ukraine, Monastyrsky’s deputy Yevgeny Enin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lubkovich were also among those killed. During conflict, high-ranking officials usually travel by helicopter.

According to Igor Klymenko, nine of the dead were on board the helicopter when it crashed in Brovary, an eastern suburb of the Ukrainian capital. The rest of the victims appeared to be lying on the ground.

Governor of the Kyiv region Alexei Kuleba said that a total of 18 people were killed, including three children, and 25 were injured. However, the Emergency Situations Service of Ukraine estimated the death toll at 15 people. It was not immediately possible to confirm whether this was old information or an updated figure.

At the crash site, at least four bodies on the ground were covered in reflective sheets as officials cleared the wreckage of the helicopter from the playground. Debris also lay on a charred car and building.

“It’s too early to talk about the reasons,” Yuriy Ignat, a representative of the Ukrainian Air Force, told the TV channel. He said the investigation might take some time.

According to him, it was a Super Puma helicopter supplied by France.

The Security Service of Ukraine is investigating, Prosecutor General Andrei Kostin said. “While we are considering all possible versions of the helicopter crash,” he said in Telegram.

The disaster comes at a particularly dark time in the war for Ukraine, just days after a Russian strike on an apartment building in southeastern Ukraine killed 45 people, including six children, in the deadliest attack on civilians since the spring. .

“Today is another very sad day – new losses,” Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska said, wiping her tears and holding her nose as she responded to the news during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

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The forum held 15 seconds of silence after the opening of the meeting in memory of the murdered Ukrainian officials.

“I didn’t have time to recover from one tragedy, another one,” said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

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