Kuleba added that the number of injured has risen to 29, including 15 children, who have been taken to area hospitals. According to the Ukrainian police, The minister and deputy home minister and “another senior official” who were in the helicopter also died.
Nine people were traveling in an emergency service helicopter operated under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“Today, January 18, an emergency service helicopter crashed in Provery. Authorities say they were on board.
“Ambulances, police and firefighters are at the scene”he added.
“There were children and staff inside the kindergarten at the time of the tragedy.”Kuleba is referred to as a news broadcast through the digital messaging system Telegram.
According to the authorities, the crash of the helicopter caused the fire, but the circumstances of the crash with the device near a kindergarten in the city of Brovary, on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, are not yet known.
Rulers are among the victims
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi was a lawyer by profession and was appointed to the post in July 2021 after serving as a member of the Ukrainian Parliament (Rada) for a party that supports President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
“Today, a terrible tragedy occurred in Brovary, Kiev region. An SES helicopter crashed and caught fire at the crash site.”the Ukrainian president wrote on Instagram.
The exact number of victims, he pointed out, “is being counted”.
“Among them are Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Denis Monastyrskyi, his First Deputy Yevan Yenin, State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lubkovich and their aides and helicopter crew.”
“I instructed the Security Service of Ukraine together with the National Police of Ukraine and other authorized bodies to find out all the circumstances of what happened”, assured the Head of State, “All services are working at the scene. Tragedy”.
Zelensky also recalled “Denis, Yevhen, Yuri and the team of the Ministry of Internal Affairs” “True patriots of Ukraine”.
“A terrible tragedy in Bovary. Amidst the war and the pain of daily losses, such a terrible disaster was far from our front.”He wrote on Facebook.
The minister emphasized that the deaths of friends and children are “always particularly frightening and painful”.
“In this disaster I lost colleagues and close friends – Denis Monastyrskyi and Yevgeny Yenina. Both of them are patriots of Ukraine and their death is a great loss not only for me, their families and friends, but for our entire state.”.
“Tragedy in Brovary. (…) Great loss for the government and the whole state” UkraineHe appealed in a telegram “Immediate formation of a special committee for detailed investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy”.
European Council President Charles Michel mourned the death of Ukraine’s interior minister, whom he considered “a great friend of the European Union,” and expressed his “deepest condolences” to the people of Ukraine.
“We join in the pain of Ukraine”Charles Michael wrote on Twitter.
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