Three top Ukrainian officials killed in helicopter crash near Kyiv

At least 14 people were killed in a helicopter crash in Brovary, a city in Ukraine’s Kyiv region, on the morning of January 18, according to Ukrainian authorities. All nine people who were aboard the aircraft reportedly died. Kyiv Governor Oleksiy Kuleba initially said on Telegram that 29 people were injured. Later, this number was corrected to 25, including 11 children.

Update: An earlier version of this article reported that at least 16 people had been killed in the crash, four of them being children. After a more thorough identification of the bodies at the crash site, Ukrainian officials corrected the number of victims to 14, including one child.

The helicopter, which belonged to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, landed between a kindergarten and a residential building, presumably as a result of foggy conditions, and caught on fire after crashing.

One of the people who died in the crash was Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, according to Ukrainian National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko. First Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary Yury Lubkovich were also reportedly killed in the accident. According to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian President's Office, the officials were on an official trip to one of the war’s “hot spots.” 

It’s unclear what caused the crash. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry and the Ukrainian Air Force both said that it’s too early to say why the crash occurred. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin reported that investigators are considering “all possible lines of inquiry for the helicopter crash.” Interior Ministry advisor Anton Herashchenko said that “whether this was sabotage, an equipment malfunction, an air safety violation, we’ll soon find out.” According to Ukrainian media, the crash could have been a result of pilot error. Ukraine’s State Security Service has launched a pre-trial investigation.