A helicopter crash near a children’s nursery outside Kyiv resulted in 16 deaths, including the country’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi.
Three children are also among the dead.
Nine bodies have been identified as yet including six ministry officials.
Alongside the 42-year-old interior minister, his first deputy Yevheniy Yenin, and the ministry’s state secretary also died in the crash.
The regional governor said 18 people had been killed but emergency services later announced a death toll of 16.
Head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said that the minister had been en route to a war “hot spot” when his helicopter went down.
He stated that there is currently no information on the number of missing children. “Identification is ongoing. Parents are coming, lists are being compiled,” he confirmed.
Monastyrskyi was a prominent member of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s cabinet. He was appointed in 2021 and played a key role in updating the public about the casualties caused by Russian missile strikes since Ukraine was invaded in February 2022.
As of yet, the reason for the crash is unknown. However, Ukrainian officials have made no reference to Russian attacks in the area at the time.
The helicopter crashed at a time when the country has still not recovered from the loss of 45 people killed in an apartment block in a Russian missile attack in the city of Dnipro on Saturday.
