Ukraine’s interior minister, other top officials killed in helicopter crash

Workers clear part of the wreckage after a helicopter crashed in a suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 18, 2023. A helicopter carrying Ukraine’s interior minister crashed into a kindergarten in a foggy residential suburb of Kyiv on Wednesday, killing him and about a dozen other people, including a child on the ground, authorities said. The crash killed five Interior Ministry officials, one national police official and all three helicopter crew members, the Ukraine National Police said. White House National Security Council spokesman John F. Kirby called the crash “heartbreaking.” British Home Secretary Suella Braverman called Monastyrsky “a leading light in supporting the Ukrainian people during Putin’s illegal invasion.” She said she was “struck by his determination, optimism and patriotism.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is facing pressure to send tanks to Ukraine, tweeted that the crash “shows once again the huge price that Ukraine is having to pay in this war.” Meanwhile, Putin on Wednesday again defended the invasion of Ukraine, offering a variation on arguments he has used previously. The Russian leader told a gathering of veterans that Moscow’s actions were intended to stop a “war” that has raged since 2014 in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have battled Ukrainian forces.