A Ukrainian government helicopter crashed near a nursery full of children outside Kyiv on Wednesday morning, with at least sixteen people including Ukraine’s interior affairs minister reportedly dead.
It was learnt that the helicopter came down in the Ukrainian town of Brovary, found to the northeast of the capital, on Wednesday morning. Emergency services rushed to the scene.
“In the city of Brovary, a helicopter fell near a kindergarten and a residential building,” the head of the Kyiv regional administration, Oleksiy Kuleba said.
He added, “There were children and … staff in the nursery at the time of this tragedy. Everyone has now been evacuated. There are casualties.”
A presidential aide said that casualty checks were being conducted, amid fears that children were still trapped inside the burning building. According to initial reports, at least three people died and some children were evacuated.
People could be heard screaming in videos shared on social media of a burning building. The flames appeared to have spread over a wide area.
He stated that two people were killed in the crash and that there was fire at the scene.
Kyrylo Samoilenko, head of the Brovary Department of Kyiv regional police, later updated that three people had died and five had been injured.
Brovary is located about 12 miles northeast of Kyiv.
In the early stages of Moscow’s invasion, Russian and Ukrainian forces fought for control of Brovary until Russia’s troops withdrew in early April. On February 24, last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin dispatched troops to pro-Western Ukraine.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, and Ukrainian officials made no reference to any Russian attack in the area at the time.