At least 16 people were killed when a Ukrainian interior ministry-operated Airbus Helicopters H225 transport crashed near Kyiv on 18 January.
Following the accident, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the dead included “the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs”. Among them were interior minister Denys Monastyrskyi, first deputy Yevhen Yenin, state secretary Yuri Lubkovych, their assistants and the helicopter’s crew.
Three children are also confirmed to have died when the aircraft came down outside a kindergarten in Brovary, with Kyiv saying a further 30 people were injured, including 12 children.
Ukraine’s interior ministry received its first pair of H225s in December 2019, after acquiring aircraft ‘repurposed’ from their original use serving the offshore oil and gas sector. Cirium fleets data shows that the operator had eight examples in use and a further four in storage prior to the loss.
“All relevant services are working at the scene of the tragedy,” the Ukrainian government says, with an investigation having been launched into the circumstances behind the accident.
