BOVARY: A helicopter crash west of Kyiv on Wednesday morning claimed the lives of 18 persons, including the interior minister of Ukraine, other senior ministry employees, and three children.
The helicopter crashed down in a residential neighbourhood in Brovary, on the northeastern suburbs of the capital, injuring 29, according to the regional governor, including 15 children.
Near the wrecked nursery, several bodies covered in foil blankets were lying in a courtyard. There were emergency personnel on the site. A playground was littered with trash.
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his first deputy Yevheniy Yenin, and other officials were slain in a state emergency service helicopter, according to national police commander Ihor Klymenko.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kyiv area, posted on Telegram that “there were kids and employees in the nursery at the time of this catastrophe.”
Authorities waited before disclosing the cause of the helicopter crash. Russia, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February of last year, made no quick comments, and local Ukrainian officials made no mention of any Russian attacks at the time.
The most senior Ukrainian official to pass away since the start of the war would be Monastyrskyi, who was in charge of the police and security inside Ukraine.
Separately, Ukraine reported heavy fighting overnight in the country’s east, where both sides had endured two months of severe trench warfare at great cost.
Attacks were defeated by Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, a city in the east, and Klishchiivka, a settlement nearby, according to the Ukrainian military. In recent weeks, Russia has been concentrating on Bakhmut, and last week it claimed to have captured the mining town of Solar on its northern fringes.
“Western Allies Gather in Germany to Offer Additional Weaponry for Ukraine Amid Hardening Frontlines”
The last two months have seen a hardening of the frontlines following significant Ukrainian victories in the second half of 2022. According to Kyiv, new Western armaments, particularly large tanks that would provide its troop’s mobility and protection to drive past Russian lines, would enable it to resume an offensive to reclaim the land.
On Friday, Western allies will assemble at a U.S. air base in Germany to offer additional weaponry for Ukraine. Germany is in particular the center of attention since it can block any decision to send its Leopard tanks, which are used by militaries throughout Europe and are generally regarded as the most appropriate for Ukraine.
Berlin claims that Boris Pistorius, its new defense minister, will decide on the tanks as his first item on the agenda.
Britain, which over the weekend promised to send a squadron of its Challenger tanks, breached the Western taboo against sending main battle tanks and has urged Germany to permit the Leopards. If Berlin permits it, Poland and Finland have already stated that they are prepared to send Leopards.