Ukraine Interior Minister among 18 killed in helicopter crash near Kyiv

Colombo (News 1st) - Ukraine's Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky and Deputy Minister of the Interior Yevhen Yenin are among 18 people killed when a helicopter crashed just outside the capital, Kyiv, Foreign Media reported.

Monastyrsky, 42, was a prominent member of President Volodymy Zelensky's cabinet. There was no immediate cause of the crash. But there was no indication that it had been anything but an accident.

Several people on the ground were also killed, apart from the nine people who were on board. Three children are among the dead. Twenty nine people were injured. The helicopter, which was on its way to a war frontline in eastern Ukraine, crashed near a kindergarten and burst into flames in the darkness and dense fog.