DM Monitoring
KYIV: Ukraine’s interior minister was among 16 people, including two children, who were killed when a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten outside the capital Kyiv, officials said Wednesday.
In a video that circulated online from the aftermath of the incident, cries could be heard at the scene which was consumed by a fire.
There were no immediate details on the cause of the crash. “In total, 16 people are currently known to have died,” the head of national police, Igor Klymenko, said.
Among the dead are several top officials of the interior ministry including Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky and his first deputy minister, Yevgeniy Yenin, he said.
Monastyrsky, a 42-year-old father of two, was appointed interior minister in 2021. Twenty-two people were hospitalised including 10 children.
Officials said that at the time of the crash children and employees were in the kindergarten. Medics and police were working at the scene.
The scene of the crash in the town of Brovary is located some 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Kyiv. Russian and Ukrainian forces fought for control of Brovary in the early stages of Moscow’s invasion until Russia’s troops withdrew in early April.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24 last year. The crash came on the heels of a tragedy that saw 45 people including six children die when a Russian missile struck a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro at the weekend.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the crash “a terrible tragedy”. “Today, a terrible tragedy occurred in Brovary, Kyiv region. A SES [State Emergency Service] helicopter crashed, and a fire broke out at the crash site. The pain is unspeakable,” he said in a statement on social media.
“You can only imagine some of the conversations happening right now, in Kyiv in those government circles as to what’s going to happen next.” Monastyrskyy, 42, responsible for the police and security inside Ukraine, is the most senior Ukrainian official to die since the war began.
A trained lawyer, he had served as Ukraine’s interior minister since July 2021. He was a key member of Zelenskyy’s party Servant of the People and was married, with two children. “My colleagues, my friends. What a tragic loss. Deepest condolences to their families,” said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser.
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman called Monastyrskyy “a leading light in supporting the Ukrainian people during Putin’s illegal invasion”. “When we spoke in October I was struck by his determination, optimism and patriotism,” she said on Twitter.
