Ukraine Minister Among 16 Dead In Chopper Crash Near Kindergarten
Kiev:
Ukraine’s interior minister was among 16 people, including two children, killed when a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten outside the capital Kiev, officials said on Wednesday.
In a video that went viral online in the aftermath of the incident, cries can be heard at the scene being consumed by the fire.
There were no immediate details on the cause of the crash.
🇺🇦🚁🔥A kindergarten destroyed by a helicopter crash pic.twitter.com/WZx2Bk5ArN
— AZ (@AZgeopolitics) January 18, 2023
“In total, 16 people are now known to have died,” said head of the national police Igor Klymenko.
Among the dead were several top Interior Ministry officials, he said, including Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky and First Deputy Minister Yevgeniy Yenin.
Monastyrsky, 42, a father of two, will be appointed interior minister in 2021.
22 people were hospitalized, including 10 children.
Officials said at the time of the crash, the children and staff were at the kindergarten.
Paramedics and police were at the scene.
The scene of the accident was in the town of Brovary, about 20 kilometers northeast of the capital Kiev.
Russian and Ukrainian forces fought for control of Brovary in the early stages of Moscow’s invasion until the Russian troops withdrew in early April.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24 last year.
The crash came shortly after a tragedy that left 45 people including six children dead when a Russian missile hit a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro over the weekend.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from an aggregated feed.)