Ukrainian minister killed in helicopter crash
President describes the ‘unspeakable pain’ of loss after aircraft came down on school killing 14 people
DENYS MONASTYRSKY’S helicopter was in trouble well before it bounced off the roof of the Dzhereltse nursery school in Brovary yesterday morning.
It was just after eight o’clock, as parents dropped off their children at the suburban pre-school, that the flaming aircraft burst out of the low fog above the concrete suburb.
“I was in the school, it was dark in the classroom. There was a rumble, a burst of fire, the children and I fell to the floor, immediately there was a stench,” one unnamed teacher told local media.
“The teachers outside saw that it was already on fire as it was flying. And it was descending, descending.”
Mr Monastyrsky, Ukraine’s interior minister since 2021, Yevhen Yenin, his deputy, and Yuri Lubkovych, state secretary of the interior ministry were just minutes into a flight to Kharkiv when their Super Puma EC-225 crashed.
The death toll was reported as 14, including one child.
Authorities refused to speculate on the cause of the crash but significantly not only the police but the SBU, Ukraine’s internal security service, opened investigations.
The agency said it was focusing on several possibilities including technical malfunction, failure to follow flight rules, or intentional destruction. The police have appealed for witnesses.
The school is a flat-roofed two-storey building in the middle of a large rectangular courtyard framed by nine-storey apartment blocks. The area is crowded with trees and telephone lines. No helicopter pilot would attempt to land here other than in the most desperate of circumstances.
A trail of burn marks and wreckage suggest the aircraft collided with the northwest-facing façade, skipped along the roof like a stone on water, and exploded on the tarmac outside the entrance of one of the blocks of flats. Unsure if they were being bombed, dozens of neighbours ran towards the blast to offer help.
“It was 8.05 exactly. I heard the explosion and came outside. You couldn’t see anything, there was smoke everywhere,” said Nina Tymanyk, 70, whose flat faces out the opposite side of the apartment block. “There were two explosions because it blew up a car.”
Viktor Komesarov, 16, said he was woken in his apartment overlooking the square by a whistle followed by an explosion. “At first I was confused because I heard a blast but there was no air raid alert,” he said.
“I looked out the window and saw my dad running into the kindergarten. I realised Mum wasn’t at home either. And then she came out of the building with three little kids and brought them into our kitchen to treat them.” Viktor and his parents did basic first aid tests on the kids to check for broken bones and concussions. The children – one boy and two girls aged around six or seven – were unharmed other than a few scratches and were later collected by their parents. Meanwhile, Viktor’s friend Gleb Kasyan, 17, had rushed to the scene. He found two charred dead bodies thrown clear of the wreckage, but immediately turned his attention to the survivors.
“We helped children,” he said. “They were passed over the fence, we pulled them out, provided first aid, checked their hearing and eyesight... There were many children but we were able to take only three because they were in a panic. We could not collect them together,” the high school student said.
The loss of the minister and his top advisers is a heavy blow to Volodymyr Zelensky’s government. Mr Monastyrsky, 42, was one of the most powerful men in the cabinet.
As interior minister he oversaw Ukraine’s police, the emergency services, and the national guard – a large armed force that has fought alongside the army throughout Russia’s invasion.
It includes the Azov regiment, which played a key role in the defence of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
He had won respect for his handling of the sprawling ministry since the invasion. The police chief in Kharkiv he was due to visit described him as a “friend” as well as a colleague.
“The pain is unspeakable,” Mr Zelensky said in a tribute.
Olena Zelenska, the First Lady, called it “a horrible day for Ukraine”.
‘There were many children but we were able to take only three because they were in a panic’