Carnage at the nursery
3 Ukrainian ministers and a child among 14 killed in copter crash... as Zelensky warns tyranny is outpacing democracy
Volodymyr zelensky warned yesterday that ‘tyranny is outpacing democracy’ hours after 14 people, including three top officials, died when a helicopter crashed into a Kyiv nursery.
The ukrainian president urged world leaders to act faster in backing his country against Vladimir Putin.
ukraine’s interior minister Denys Monastyrsky and the two other senior figures in the ministry were killed when the helicopter crashed in the Kyiv suburb of brovary and caught fire. A child, who was on the ground, was also among the dead.
Interior ministry official Anton Gerashchenko suggested the crash could have been the result of Russian sabotage. An investigation is under way.
Mr zelensky called for a minute’s silence to mark the deaths as he addressed the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos by videolink from Kyiv.
Earlier his wife, olena zelenska, who was attending the event, dabbed her tears and pinched her nose in emotion as the news of the crash emerged.
Mr zelensky was applauded by his audience including global political and business leaders, but he had a stark message for them.
‘Tragedies are outpacing life; the tyranny is outpacing democracy,’ he said. ‘Russia needed less than one second to start a war. The world needed days to react with first sanctions. The time the free world uses to think is used by the terrorist state to kill.’
Amid calls in some quarters for negotiations with Russia to try end the conflict, Mr zelensky said the world had been hesitant in 2014 when Russia invaded the Crimea. ‘The world must not hesitate today or ever,’ he added.
He called for supplies of air defence systems and tanks desperately needed by ukraine to arrive in time to ‘outpace’ President Putin’s acts of aggression.
The uK recently announced that it would send 14 Challenger battle tanks to ukraine to help bolster its forces.
They are the first heavy tanks to be pledged by a Western nation, although hundreds of armoured vehicles have already been donated. The uK’s move has heaped pressure on other countries – notably Germany – to follow suit. ukraine’s Western allies are due to meet at Rammstein airbase, in Germany, tomorrow where it is expected Germany will agree to send its sought-after Leopard 2 tanks.
Mr Monastyrsky is the most senior ukrainian official to have died since the start of the war with Russia 11 months ago.
The two other interior ministry officials who died were first deputy Yevhen Yenin and state secretary Yura Lubkovich. All nine on board were killed.
ukrainian officials confirmed that 25 people were injured, including 11 children.
Videos shared on social media showed a burning building and
‘The world must not hesitate’
people could be heard screaming after the aircraft came down.
one video showed the helicopter flying low over trees, apparently without difficulty, seconds before it crashed. In the footage, there is no sign of smoke or the aircraft being out of control. Investigators are also considering whether the crash could have been an accident or caused by pilot error.
÷AS he visited an air defence factory in St Petersburg, yesterday, Putin claimed that Russia’s military and industrial might meant ‘victory is assured, I have no doubt about it’.