The Ukrainian president regretted the “terrible tragedy” on Wednesday and expressed “indescribable pain” after a helicopter crash in a kindergarten near kyiv, which killed 18 people, including three children and the Interior Minister.
“Today a terrible tragedy occurred in Brovary,” a city that borders the eastern suburbs of kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky said on the Telegram social network.
“The pain is indescribable. The helicopter crashed on the grounds of a kindergarten,” added the Ukrainian president.
“I ordered the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), in cooperation with the National Police and other authorized bodies, to determine the circumstances of the incident,” he stressed.
Zelensky, who described the members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs killed in the helicopter crash as “true patriots”, sent his condolences to the families and friends of the victims.
“May they rest in peace. May all those people whose lives were taken on this dark morning rest in peace,” he stressed.
The helicopter that crashed and was carrying Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi on board was heading to the front lines, the Ukrainian presidency revealed today.
“The purpose of this flight [era ir] to one of the hot spots in our country where fighting is taking place. The interior minister was on his way,” the deputy chief of staff of the presidency, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on Ukrainian television.
The helicopter, which belonged to the Ukrainian Emergency Services, crashed into a kindergarten in Brovary, on the outskirts of kyiv, killing 18 people, including Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, Deputy Minister Yevhen Yenin and Secretary of State Yurii Lubkovych, plus three children.
The accident is being investigated and all possible causes of the fall remain open, which also left 29 people injured, including 15 children, who were taken to the local hospital.
The Emergency Services helicopter, an agency under the Ministry of the Interior, was carrying nine people.
In reaction to the accident, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, declared herself “deeply saddened” and sent her condolences “to the families, the Government and the people of Ukraine.”
Source: TSF
