At least 15 people were killed when a French-made Super Puma helicopter crashed on Wednesday morning near a nursery in the town of Brovary, outside of Kyiv. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyy, his deputy Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yurii Lubkovych were among those killed in the helicopter crash, according to Ukraine’s National Police Chief, Ihor Klymenko.
Nine people on board the helicopter and six people on the ground were killed, including three children. The regional governor said that 29 people were injured including 15 children. “There were children and … staff in the nursery at the time of this tragedy,” Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram.
“Parents were running, screaming. There was panic,” said local volunteer Lidiya. Emergency services and residents rushed to evacuate the children as the fire spread through the nursery building.
The Minister and officials were going to one of the “hotspots” of the Russian-Ukraine war said Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko in a briefing. Denys Monastyrskyy becomes the senior-most official to die since the war began. The 42-year-old Minister was an important member of the President’s Cabinet and is responsible for security and police inside the country. He played a key role in updating the public on the casualties caused by Russian missile attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the crash a “terrible tragedy.” “Today, a terrible tragedy occurred in Brovary, Kyiv region. A SES (state emergency services) helicopter crashed, and a fire broke out at the crash site. The pain is unspeakable,” he said in a statement on social media.
Investigations Underway In Ukraine
Ukrainian officials said that it is not immediately clear about what was the cause for the helicopter crash. Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said that it could take several weeks to investigate the crash. “Unfortunately, the sky does not forgive mistakes, as pilots say, but it’s really too early to talk about the causes,” he said in a TV broadcast.
Peter Zalmayev, analyst at the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, told the media that a possible cause could be the poor visibility due to fog in the region. However, he called the incident suspicious and said that a possibility of a terrorist act by the Russian Federation cannot be ruled out. Russia has not made any comments on the crash till now.
Brovary, a commuter town was the scene of fierce fighting early in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The town is located 20 kms northeast of Kyiv and was among the urban hubs Russia tried to capture early in the war. Regions around the capital are no longer the scene for fighting after the Russian forces pushed back but a series of missile attacks have disrupted power across the country.
Ukraine’s National Police Chief, Ihor Klymenko, has been appointed as the acting Interior Minister.
