According to police, Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyj died in a helicopter crash near the capital Kyiv. In total, there were at least 18 fatalities after the crash near a kindergarten in the city of Brovary, which borders on Kyiv, said the responsible regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba on Telegram. Among them are three children. 29 people were injured, including 15 children. The number of dead was previously given as 16.

According to Kuleba, there were children and employees in the kindergarten at the time of the crash. Rescue workers and police officers are on duty at the scene. Deputy Interior Minister Yehwhenij Jenin and a state secretary were also among the dead. The now killed 42-year-old Monastyrskyj was appointed interior minister in 2021.

At first there was no information as to why the Interior Ministry leadership was traveling by helicopter. In times of war, helicopters are used there, among other things, to fly the injured to the capital Kyiv.

A widespread fire could be seen on videos from the crash site distributed in online networks. No information was initially released about the possible cause of the crash. The plane that crashed belonged to a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force for the government emergency service in Kyiv and was therefore the responsibility of the Interior Ministry.

Brovary is around 20 kilometers from the center of Kiev. Ukraine has been fighting a Russian war of aggression for almost eleven months. There are repeated air alerts in the country because of Russian rocket and drone attacks. The capital Kyiv, like other parts of the country, was repeatedly the target of attacks.