18 people die, including Ukraine’s Interior Minister, when a helicopter crashes next to a kindergarten

At least 18 people, including the Minister of the Interior of Ukraine and three children, were killed Wednesday in a helicopter crash outside kyiv en route to the front lines of the war with Russia.

“The objective of the flight (was to go) to one of the hot spots in our country where fighting is taking place”said Ukrainian presidential adviser Kirilo Timoshenko. “The interior minister was on his way there,” he added.

LOOK: The death toll from the brutal Russian attack on a residential building in Dnipro rises to 44 and there are 22 missing

According to a message from the region’s governor, Oleksii Kuleba, there were also “29 injured, including 15 children.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky called the accident a “terrible tragedy.” “The pain is indescribable,” he added.

Prime Minister Denis Chmigal announced, for his part, that he had given instructions to create “a special group to investigate in detail the circumstances of the tragedy.”

LOOK: The images of the destruction in Dnipro after the Russian attack on residential buildings that left more than 40 dead

In the images circulating on social media, the remains of the helicopter could be seen, near a car destroyed under the weight of the metal. Firefighters and police were at the scene, an AFP team found.

Among the fatalities are the Minister of the Interior, Denys Monastyrsky42, his deputy minister Yevgeny Jenin and the ministry’s State Secretary, Yurii Lubkovytch, who were on board the device along with six other people, the head of the Ukrainian national police said in a statement.

Monastyrskya lawyer by profession, had been in office since July 2021. In 2019 he was a deputy of the Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, under the label of “Servant of the people”, the presidential party.

The accident took place in Brovary, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants in the east of kyiv. In the first weeks of the invasion, when Russian troops were trying to get closer to the Ukrainian capital, there was a lot of fighting in this town.

At the time of the drama, “there were children and employees at the kindergarten,” Kuleba said.

new tragedy

After the accident, one of the first to react was the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.

“We join Ukraine in grief after the tragic helicopter crash (…) Monastirski was a great friend of the EU,” tweeted the person in charge.

According to images posted on social media, A huge fire broke out after the helicopter crashed.

For now, the cause of the accident has not been disclosed.

The aircraft belonged to the state service for emergencies under the Ministry of the Interior, according to a spokesman for the Ukrainian air force.

This new tragedy takes place in the middle of the war with Russiaand four days after a deadly Russian attack on Dniproin the east of Ukraine.

A Russian missile destroyed a residential building on Saturday, killing at least 45 people, including six children. This was one of the deadliest bombings since the start of the Russian invasion, in February 2022.

The youngest victim was 11 months old, Timoshenko lamented Tuesday night, after more than three days of searches.

Under the rubble, emergency teams managed to get some survivors between huge concrete blocks.

This attack against a civilian target caused a great commotion among the Ukrainian population.

Zelensky He promised that “every person guilty of this war crime” would be brought to justice and accused the Russian army of the killings.

RussiaFor her part, she denied being involved in the attack.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.