Zelenskyy's Minister, Other Top Officials Among 18 Dead In Helicopter Crash Near Kyiv

Ukraine's interior minister and senior officials were among eighteen people who died as the state emergency service helicopter crashed near Kyiv on Wednesday.

What Happened: The national police chief, Ihor Klymenko, on Facebook, said a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten in the town of Brovary on Kyiv's eastern outskirts, killing Denys Monastyrsky, along with his deputy and other officials.

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"There were children and...staff in the nursery at the time of this tragedy. Everyone has now been evacuated. There are casualties," Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram.

Kuleba said three children were among the dead and dozens of people were in the hospital.

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The Ukrainian officials gave no immediate account of the cause of the crash.

The deputy head of the presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, wrote on Telegram that "we are finding out information about casualties and the circumstances."

Russia, which invaded Ukraine last February, also made no comments. 

Ukraine's Interior Minister Monastyrsky, who was responsible for the police and security inside the country, is the most senior official from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's cabinet to die since the onset of the war.

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