The death toll from the crash of a helicopter near a kindergarten in the Ukrainian city of Brovary, located in the Kiev region, has risen to 18, as confirmed Wednesday by the authorities, who said that among the victims is the Minister of the Interior, Denis Monastirski.
Kiev Region Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said the 18 killed in what he described as «a tragedy» included three children. «There are also 29 injured, including 15 children,» he said in a message on his Telegram account.
«All necessary assistance is being given to the victims. All emergency services are on the scene,» Kuleba added, shortly after Ukrainian police chief Igor Klimenko confirmed that the deceased include senior members of the Interior Ministry leadership.
Klimenko has indicated in a message on his account on the social network Facebook that «a helicopter of the State Emergency Service has crashed in Brovary.» «As a result of the crash, the leadership of the Interior Ministry has died: the minister, the deputy minister and the state secretary,» he said.
Minutes earlier, Kuleba himself had detailed that the helicopter «has fallen near a kindergarten and a residential building.» «At the time of the tragedy, children and employees of the institution were in the nursery. Everyone has been evacuated,» he had emphasized.
Also, the spokeswoman for the Police in the Kiev region, Irina Prianishnikova, said that the event had resulted in several deaths, without giving further details. «Police and emergency services, as well as the National Guard, are on the scene. We have already evacuated several people,» she said, according to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
For his part, the deputy advisor to the Ukrainian presidency, Kirilo Timoshenko, said that «the number of reports of casualties in Brovary is increasing.» «We don’t have time to recover from one tragedy and we already have another one,» he has lamented.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
