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Ukrainian emergency services said the country’s interior minister and a few other officials were killed in a helicopter crash outside Ukraine’s capital Kyiv this week. The cause of the crash has yet to be determined.
Ukraine’s emergency services said on Wednesday that interior minister Denys Monastyrskyy, his deputy Yevhen Yenin, and the Internal Affairs State Secretary Yurii Lubkovych were among those who were killed in a helicopter crash close to a nursery in Brovary, located outside Kyiv. The emergency services reported that the death toll was at 14, including one child, compared to the previous estimate that 16 were killed. However, a local official estimated the death toll earlier to be at 18.
Dozens were wounded in the crash, including children. Kyiv regional governor Oleksii Kuleba wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging platform that there were children and nursery staff in the area at the time of the incident. Kuleba added that all emergency services were on site.
During a briefing, Ukrainian presidential office deputy head Kyrylo Tymoshenko said the helicopter was set to go to one of the “hot spots” in Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, adding that more details on the matter would follow. Ukrainian prosecutor general Andriy Kostin said on Telegram that Ukraine’s security service was carrying out the investigation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the incident was “a terrible tragedy” in a statement on social media. Monastyrskyy is the most senior Ukrainian official to die in the nearly 11-month-long war.
US President Joe Biden extended his condolences to the families of those killed in the helicopter crash in a joint statement with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. The Bidens praised Monastyrskyy’s efforts in “the preservation of Ukraine’s democracy – both in its defense against Russian aggression and the vital work of reforms to strengthen Ukraine’s institutions through this war and into the future.”
“A reformer and a patriot, Mr. Monastyrskyy championed the will of the Ukrainian people. We will continue to honor that legacy through efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s institutions, and in our unfailing partnership with the people of Ukraine to keep the flame of freedom bright,” said the Bidens in the statement.
