[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]BROVARY: A helicopter crash west of Kyiv on Wednesday morning claimed the lives of 18 persons, including the interior minister of Ukraine, other senior ministry employees, and three children.
The helicopter crashed down in a residential neighbourhood in Brovary, on the northeastern suburbs of the capital, injuring 29, according to the regional governor, including 15 children. Near the wrecked nursery, several bodies covered in foil blankets were lying in a courtyard. There were emergency personnel on the site. A playground was littered with trash.
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his first deputy Yevheniy Yenin, and other officials were slain in a state emergency service helicopter, according to national police commander Ihor Klymenko.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kyiv area, posted on Telegram that “there were kids and employees in the nursery at the time of this catastrophe.” Authorities waited before disclosing the cause of the helicopter crash. Russia, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February of last year, made no quick comments, and local Ukrainian officials made no mention of any Russian attacks at the time.
The most senior Ukrainian official to pass away since the start of the war would be Monastyrskyi, who was in charge of the police and security inside Ukraine. Separately, Ukraine reported intense fighting overnight in the east of the country, where both sides have taken huge losses for little gain in intense trench warfare over the last two months.
Ukrainian forces repelled attacks in the eastern city of Bakhmut and the village of Klishchiivka just south of it, the Ukrainian military said. Russia has focused on Bakhmut in recent weeks, claiming last week to have taken the mining town of Soledar on its northern outskirts.
After major Ukrainian gains in the second half of 2022, the frontlines have hardened over the last two months. Kyiv says it hopes new Western weapons would allow it to resume an offensive to recapture land, especially heavy tanks which would give its troops mobility and protection to push through Russian lines.
Western allies will be gathering on Friday at a U.S. air base in Germany to pledge more weapons for Ukraine. Attention is focused in particular on Germany, which has veto power over any decision to send its Leopard tanks, which are fielded by armies across Europe and widely seen as the most suitable for Ukraine. Berlin claims that Boris Pistorius, its new defence minister, will decide on the tanks as his first item on the agenda.
Britain, which over the weekend promised to send a squadron of its Challenger tanks, breached the Western taboo against sending main battle tanks, has urged Germany to permit the Leopards. If Berlin permits it, Poland and Finland have already stated that they are prepared to send Leopards.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
