Wednesday, January 18, 2023 | 8:15 a.m.
18 people, including three children and Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, died when a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten on the outskirts of kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday.
“This morning, on January 18, an Emergency Service helicopter crashed in Brovary. As a result of the plane crash, the leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs died: the minister, the deputy prime minister and the secretary of state,” said the head of the national police, Igor Klymenko.
Monastyrsky, 42, the father of two, was appointed interior minister in 2021.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky called the helicopter crash near kyiv a “terrible tragedy”.
“Today, a terrible tragedy occurred in Brovary, kyiv region. A state emergency services helicopter crashed and a fire broke out at the crash site,” the president wrote via Telegram.
“The helicopter crash that killed the minister is a terrible tragedy and a black morning,” the Ukrainian president said.
Nine of the deceased were on board the helicopter, while 22 other people were injured, including 10 children.
“At the time of the tragedy there were children and employees of the institution in the nursery. At this time everyone has been evacuated. There are victims,” reported the head of the kyiv regional military administration, Oleksiy Kuleba, in his Telegram account, quoted by Ukrinform.
“The information about the victims and the circumstances” of this accident are “being prepared,” Kuleba said.
In a video that circulated on the Internet, screams were heard at the scene, which was consumed by a fire.
The crash site, in the town of Brovary, is about 20 kilometers northeast of Kiev. Russian and Ukrainian forces fought for control of Brovary in the early stages of the invasion of Moscow, until Russian troops withdrew in early April.
The incident occurred shortly after the tragedy that resulted in the death of 45 people, including six children, due to the impact of a Russian missile against a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro last weekend.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, has expressed his sorrow for the fall of the helicopter in which the Interior, Denis Monastirski, was traveling.
“We join Ukraine in mourning the tragic accident in Brovary. Minister Denis Monastirski was a great friend of the EU”, the former Belgian prime minister pointed out in a note on social networks.
Michel has sent a message of condolence to the families of the victims and especially to the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelensky, and the Prime Minister, Denis Shmyhal, apart from the Ukrainian people.
Among those killed by the accident, there are three children, apart from another 29 people who have been injured. The head of the Ukrainian Police, Igor Klimenko, has confirmed that among the victims are high officials of the leadership of the Ministry of the Interior and the deputy minister and the secretary of state would also have died.
Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are considering all possible hypotheses about the helicopter that crashed in the kyiv region today.
The General Prosecutor, Andriy Kostin, who declared that he has personally assumed the case, pointed out that the secret services of the interior are in charge of the investigation, according to Unian.
“Investigators and experts are now working at the scene of the tragedy. Urgent instructional measures are being carried out. We are currently considering all possible versions of the helicopter crash. The investigative investigation has been entrusted to the investigators of the SBU ”, the secret services of the interior, he specified.
In statements to television, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, Yuriy Ihnat, indicated that the helicopter that crashed in Brovary was carrying out tasks of the State Emergency Service.
“Unfortunately, this happened to the helicopter of the State Emergency Service that was carrying out its tasks and making an overflight. At present there are a certain number of such helicopters in Ukraine that carry out defense tasks for the country, ”he said.
He added that we will have to wait for details from the State Emergency Service.
