Ukraine Interior Min, others killed in helicopter crash

Ukraine’s Interior minister died on Wednesday in a helicopter crash near the capital that killed at least another 14 people, including other officials and three children, authorities said.

Interior minister Denys Monastyrskyi, who oversaw Ukraine’s police and emergency services, is the most senior official to die since Russia invaded nearly 11 months ago.

His death, along with two others from his ministry, was the second calamity in four days to clobber Ukraine, after a Russian missile strike on an apartment building killed dozens of civilians.

There was no immediate word on whether the crash, which was near a kindergarten, was an accident or related to the war. No fighting has been reported recently in the Kyiv area.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the crash was “a terrible tragedy” on a “black morning”.

“The pain is unspeakable,” he wrote on Telegram.

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman called Monastyrskyi “a leading light in supporting the Ukrainian people during Putin’s illegal invasion”. She said she was “struck by his determination, optimism, and patriotism”.