Ukraine’s interior minister was among 16 people, including two children, that were killed when a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten outside the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday.
Interior Minister’s deputy, Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yurii Lubkovych also died in the helicopter crash, according to Ihor Klymenko, chief of Ukraine’s National Police.
Monastyrskyi is the most senior Ukrainian official to have died since the start of the war with Russia almost 11 months ago.
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Officials said that at the time of the crash children and employees were in the kindergarten. Medics and police were working at the scene.
The scene of the crash in the town of Brovary is located some 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Kyiv.
Russian and Ukrainian forces fought for control of Brovary in the early stages of Moscow’s invasion until Russia’s troops withdrew in early April.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24 last year.
The crash came on the heels of a tragedy that saw 45 people including six children die when a Russian missile struck a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro at the weekend.
