President, PM send condolences after helicopter crash in Ukraine

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday sent condolences to Ukraine in connection with a helicopter crash on Wednesday morning which killed 18 people, including the country’s interior minister.

„It is with great sorrow that I received news about the crash of a helicopter… near Kyiv, in which several people died, including the leadership of Ukraine’s interior ministry,” Duda wrote on Twitter.

Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, currently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said he had conveyed „expressions of deepest sympathy” to the Ukrainian side.

Morawiecki added that it was still unclear whether the crash was an assassination attempt or an accident.

Eighteen people, including Ukraine’s interior affairs minister, died when their helicopter crashed in Brovary, a suburb of Kyiv. Three children are among the dead and over 20 people have been hospitalised.

Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi was in the helicopter with eight other passengers. Also among the fatalities are his first deputy minister and a state secretary.

Monastyrskyi, 42, was a prominent member of President Volodymy Zelensky’s cabinet and played a key role in informing the public about casualties caused by Russian missile strikes since Ukraine was invaded in February 2022.

(PAP) mb/mrb/jch