Kyiv, (Ukraine) January 19: A helicopter carrying interior minister of Ukraine and several senior officials crashed in the suburb of Kyiv killing more than a dozen people, emergency officials said.
The dead include minister Denys Monastyrsky, the highest ranking official to die since Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Denys oversaw the police, its national guard and border patrol units including tens of thousands of combatants who have fought the wars.
There were conflicting reports about the toll but Ukraine’s state emergency service said total 14 people including a child had died in the crash.
“The copter crash also damaged a kindergarten and a 14-storey residential building,” a top official confirmed.
The crash occurred at about 8.30 AM local time when the parents typically drop their children off at the school.
The cause of the crash, which involved a State Emergency Services helicopter, was not clear, but there was no initial information that the copter had been shot down.
“We will soon find out whether it was a sabotage, a technical malfunction or a violation of safety rules. It will take some time but we will get to the bottom of it. The probe will begin immediately,” Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to ministry of internal affairs, said.
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