16 including 2 children, Ukrainian minister die in helicopter crash near kindergarten outside Kyiv; visuals surface

Brovary (Ukraine) (AP)

Ukraine's interior minister Denys Monastyrskyi died on Wednesday in a helicopter crash near the capital that killed more than a dozen other people, including children, authorities said.

Mr Monastyrskyi's deputy Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yurii Lubkovych were also among those killed, according to the chief of Ukraine's National Police. Senior officials routinely travel by helicopter during the conflict, often low and at high speed.

Mr Monastyrskyi, who oversaw Ukraine's police and emergency services, is the most senior official to die since Russia invaded nearly 11 months ago. His death, along with that of two others from his ministry, was the second calamity in four days for Ukraine, after a Russian missile strike on an apartment building killed dozens of civilians.

There was no immediate word on whether the morning crash, near a kindergarten and reportedly in heavy fog, was an accident or related to the war, but Ukrainian authorities immediately opened an investigation. No fighting has been reported recently in the Kyiv area.

Ukraine's State Emergency Service said that 17 people were killed in the crash, including nine people who were aboard the helicopter and four children who presumably were on the ground. It said 25 people have been injured, including 11 children.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the crash as "a terrible tragedy" on a "black morning". "The pain is unspeakable," he wrote on Telegram.

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman called the 42-year-old Monastyrskyi "a leading light in supporting the Ukrainian people during Putin's illegal invasion." She said she was "struck by his determination, optimism and patriotism".

Officials cleared chunks of charred, mangled wreckage, lying against an apartment building and in a playground. Some walls were partly demolished and blackened.

A French defence official said the helicopter was sold to Ukraine in 2019 and was not part of equipment that France has provided since the start of the war. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to be named, according to ministry policy.