Eighteen people have lost their lives, including Ukraine’s Interior Affairs minister, after a helicopter crashed close to a kindergarten in an eastern suburb of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Denys Monastyrsky, the minister, was in the chopper with eight other people. According to officials, his first deputy minister and the state secretary also died when the helicopter crashed in the suburb of Brovary.
Ihor Klymenko, the head of the national police, announced on Facebook that the helicopter belonged to Ukraine’s national emergency service.
Commander of the regional military administration for Kyiv, also reported that 18 people had died and 29 injured in the wake of the disaster in Brovary.
Children and employees were evacuated from the facility because of a fire that started near the kindergarten after the crash. Outside the blazing building, wreckage from the aircraft could be seen.
Initial accounts indicate that the chopper hit the kindergarten before crashing not far from a residence during the night and fog at the time of the accident.
Along with Mr. Monastyrsky, two other top officials from the interior ministry were also killed. Yuriy Lubkovich served as state secretary, with Yevgeny Yenin serving as first deputy minister.
The crash follows a tragedy that saw a Russian missile strike a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro at the weekend, leaving 45 people dead including six children.
