Kiev :The Ukrainian government has appointed Igor Klymenko, Chief of the National Police, as the acting Interior Minister, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. The appointment was made following the death of Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky in a helicopter crash earlier on Wednesday.
An EC 225 Super Puma helicopter went down on Wednesday morning near a kindergarten in the residential district of Brovary, a town in the suburbs of Kiev, causing a fire in an area of 500 square metre, Xinhua news agency reported. The crash killed all nine people on board the helicopter, including Monastyrsky, his Deputy Yevhen Yenin, and State Secretary of the Interior Ministry Yuriy Lubkovych.
The latest data from the State Service for Emergencies suggested that 14 people were killed and 25 others were injured in the crash. Earlier, officials gave an initial death toll of 18.The government has decided to set up a special working group to investigate the crash, Shmyhal added.
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, who oversaw the country’s police and emergency services, is the most senior official killed since Russia invaded nearly 11 months ago. His death, along with the rest of his ministry’s leadership and the entire helicopter crew, was the second major calamity in four days to befall Ukraine, after a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the southeastern city of Dnipro, killing dozens of civilians.
There was no immediate word on whether the helicopter crash, which occurred on a foggy morning in the capital’s eastern suburb of Brovary, was an accident or related to the war. Ukrainian authorities immediately opened an investigation. No fighting has been reported recently in the capital region. (IANS)
