By Enyichukwu Enemanna
No fewer than 16 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and three children, have been feared dead in a helicopter crash near a nursery outside the capital, Kyiv, emergency services have announced.
Among those who died at the Wednesday crash are, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyy, his deputy Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yurii Lubkovych.
It was not immediately clear what caused the helicopter to crash.
The cause of the incident which happened at the town of Brovary, a commuter town that was the scene of fierce fighting early in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is yet to be ascertained, an Al Jazeera report says.
According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU), the death toll stood at 16, including three children. A local official had earlier said 18 people were killed in the crash.
At least 30 people were wounded, including 12 children.
“There were children and … staff in the nursery at the time of this tragedy,” Oleksiy Kuleba, governor of Kyiv region, wrote on Telegram.
“Children from the kindergarten are in another educational institution, and relevant services are working with them,” he said, adding that all emergency services are on site.
Videos of the crash shared on social media showed a burning building and people could be heard screaming.
Several bodies draped in foil blankets were laid in courtyard near the damaged nursery while debris was scattered over a playground.
Deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said in a briefing that the helicopter was going to one of the “hot spots” of the war with Russia, noting that more details will be provided later, according to the RBK-Ukraine news agency.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, said on Telegram that the investigation is being carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine.
“For now, we are considering all possible versions of the helicopter crash accident,” Kostin said.
