BROVARY, Ukraine, Jan 18, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Eighteen people, including 
Ukraine's interior minister and three children, were killed in a helicopter 
crash near a kindergarten outside Kyiv on Wednesday.

The helicopter slammed down next to the kindergarten and a residential 
building in Brovary, a commuter town for the capital Kyiv that was the scene 
of fierce fighting early in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Amateur footage circulating on social media showed what appeared to be the 
charred remains of the aircraft mixed with debris from nearby buildings and a 
car crushed by large shards of metal. Cries could be heard at the scene which 
was consumed by a fire.

"A helicopter of the state emergency service crashed in Brovary. As a result 
of the plane crash, the leadership of the interior ministry died," the head 
of Ukraine's police service, Igor Klymenko, said in a statement.

He specified that the Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky and his first 
deputy, Yevgeniy Yenin, were both killed.

The Kyiv region governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, put the latest death toll from the 
accident at 18 people, including three children.

"There is information about 29 wounded, including 15 children. All necessary 
assistance is provided to them," he added.

"Rescue operations are ongoing at the site".

AFP journalists in Brovary saw emergency workers and firefighters working at 
the scene. The rotary blades of the helicopter cut into a nearby building 
could also be seen.

Klymenko from Ukraine's police service said earlier that nine of those killed 
were on board the helicopter when it crashed.

- 'Tragic loss' -

Denys Monastyrsky, 42, a trained lawyer, had served as Ukraine's interior 
minister from July, 2021.

He was a key member of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's party and was 
married with two children.

"My colleagues, my friends. What a tragic loss. Deepest condolences to their 
families," said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser.

There was no immediate comments of what may have caused the crash. Aviation 
accidents are fairly common in Ukraine, where the use of ageing and sometimes 
Soviet-era infrastructure is still common.

In one of the deadliest recent incidents, 26 people, most of them air cadets, 
were killed when their Antonov-26 plane crashed near the eastern Ukrainian 
city of Kharkiv in September, 2020.

The town of Brovary is located some 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of 
Kyiv and was among urban hubs around the capital that Russian troops had 
tried to capture after invading Ukraine last year.

Regions around the capital are no longer the scene of fierce fighting after 
Russian forces were pushed back, but a series of Russian missile strikes have 
disrupted power supplies across the country, including in the Kyiv region.