A helicopter crash near a kindergarten in the Kyiv region has killed at least 18 people, including Ukraine’s entire interior ministry leadership team, according to officials.
At least 29 people were injured in the incident on Wednesday in the city of Brovary, on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital, according to Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration. Kuleba wrote on Telegram that three children are among the victims.
Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky, First Deputy Minister Yevheniy Yenin and Secretary of State Yuriy Lubkovychis also died in the crash, Anton Geraschenko, an adviser to the ministry, confirmed on social media.
Geraschenko added that investigators are determining the “cause of the tragedy.” He described everyone on the helicopter as a “patriots of Ukraine.”
A CNN team on the ground in the Kyiv region noted gray skies and very low visibility.
The helicopter that has crashed was a Eurocopter EC225 “Super Puma,” a CNN producer has confirmed after seeing remnants of flight manuals among the debris.
It landed near a kindergarten and a residential building, Kuleba said earlier.
“At the time of the tragedy, there were children and the staff in the kindergarten. At the moment, everyone was evacuated,” he wrote on Telegram.
Paramedics, the police and firefighters are responding at the scene, he added.
-CNN
