Authorities probe helicopter crash
Zelensky asks WEF for heavier weapons
KYIV: Ukrainian authorities yesterday were investigating the circumstances surrounding a helicopter crash that killed the country’s interior minister and 13 others.
Wednesday’s crash outside Kyiv came as the head of Nato said at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos that allies were set to provide “heavier weapons” to the war-battered country.
Ukraine did not claim direct Russian involvement in the helicopter crash, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said the tragedy was a consequence of the war.
“There are no accidents at war. These are all war results,” Mr Zelensky said in English, appearing by video link at Davos.
He also renewed calls for modern, Western-designed heavy tanks, which analysts say are crucial to pushing through entrenched defensive lines in eastern Ukraine.
“The time the Free World uses to think is used by the terrorist state to kill,” Mr Zelensky told delegates in Davos, issuing a “call for speed”.
The statement came after Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance would provide “more advanced support, heavier weapons and more modern weapons, because this is a fight for our values”.
In his address to Davos delegates, Mr Zelensky also shared that Ukraine aimed to reclaim Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, as he called on his Western partners to provide him with more weaponry.
“Our objective is to liberate all of our territories,” he told the audience in Davos, speaking in Ukrainian. “Crimea is our land, our territory, our sea, and our mountains. Give us your weapons and we will bring our land back.”
Meanwhile, in Washington, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said the United States was not “there yet” when it came to providing advanced Abrams tanks to Ukraine, though he did not completely close the door on a shift in the future.
The helicopter carrying Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky crashed next to a kindergarten and a residential building in Brovary, a commuter town
for the capital Kyiv that was the scene of fierce fighting with Russian forces last year.
Fourteen people were killed, including Monastyrsky, other ministry officials and a child, Mr Zelensky said in his evening address to the nation.
Another 25 people were wounded, including 11 children.
He added that an investigation had been opened “to clarify all the circumstances of the disaster”.
“Minister Denys Monastyrsky, (his deputy) Yevhen Yenin and their colleagues who died in the crash are not people who can be easily replaced,” Mr Zelensky said.
“It is a truly huge loss for the state. My condolences to the families.”
Dmytro Serbyn, who was in his apartment when the helicopter crashed, rushed to help children as soon as he saw flames billowing over the kindergarten.
“They were looking for their parents, children were crying... their faces were cut and covered in blood,” Mr Serbyn told AFP.
“We pulled out one girl. I wrapped her in a jacket, her face was wounded...
She did not tremble, did not cry.”
US President Joe Biden said in a statement it was a “heartbreaking tragedy”, calling Monastyrsky a “reformer and patriot”.
Meanwhile, EU chief Charles Michel said yesterday he was on his way to Kyiv to discuss with President Volodymyr Zelenskywhat “concrete measures” Europe can take to support Ukraine.
“I am on my way to Kyiv,” Mr Michel said in a video he posted on his Twitter account, saying he would meet Mr Zelensky as well as the prime minister and members of parliament.
The European Council president also said he would “discuss with president Zelensky and his team what are the concrete measures we can develop in order to make sure they are stronger and more powerful”.
Mr Michel hailed the Ukrainians “fighting for their land, they are fighting for their future and the future of their children”, adding they deserve Europe’s support.