Ukrainian interior minister dies in helicopter crash “Then I took up arms”: why this Swiss is fighting in Ukraine

Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyj has been killed in a helicopter crash near the capital Kiev, officials said.

At least 17 people were killed in the crash in the small town of Brovary, civil protection reported Wednesday afternoon. The dead include deputy interior minister Yehwhenij Jenin and a state secretary. Meanwhile, 18 deaths had been reported.

According to Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kiev region, the helicopter crashed into a residential area near a kindergarten. According to the Interior Ministry, four children also died. 25 people were injured, including 11 children, it was recently said.

The cause of the crash was initially unclear. The Ukrainian secret service SBU is considering three versions. That’s one Violation of flight regulations, technical problems or deliberate destruction of the helicopter.

According to Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat, it was an Airbus H225 helicopter. A committee will investigate the causes. “It won’t just take a day or two because investigating a flight disaster takes a certain amount of time,” Ihnat said. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) imposed a temporary flight ban on the H225 in 2016 due to safety concerns. The predecessor model AS332 was involved in several flying accidents.

Deputy Chief of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko told journalists in Brovary that the leaders of the Interior Ministry were heading to one of the front sectors. He declined to give further details.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of “indescribable pain” after news of the children’s deaths. He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

Condolences also came from abroad: EU Council President Charles Michel expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. Monastyrskyj was a good friend of the EU, the 47-year-old wrote on Twitter. “We grieve with you,” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, wrote to the bereaved. Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, was “heartbroken”. Her thoughts are with the families and relatives of Monastyrskyj and the other victims.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was shocked. “The helicopter crash in #Brovary shows once again the immense toll #Ukraine is paying in this war,” he wrote on Twitter about the death of Denys Monastyrskyj on Wednesday. “On this sad day, our thoughts are with the relatives of the victims and injured,” as well as with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, who “lost his interior minister today.”

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki expressed his displeasure over the incident. “That only confirms how dangerous the situation in Ukraine always is,” he said on the sidelines of the world economic summit in Davos.

Ukraine has been fighting a Russian offensive war for almost eleven months. There are repeated air alerts in the country due to Russian missile and drone attacks. The capital Kiev, like other parts of the country, was repeatedly targeted by attacks. (sda/dpa)