Denís Monastirski, during a press conference in kyiv /
The death of the Interior leadership and its minister, a politician used to traveling to war zones, forces a rapid restructuring of a ministry on which the Police and different units on the front depend.
The plane crash that has claimed the lives of Interior Minister Denis Monastirski and his most direct collaborators is a huge blow to the Ukrainian war machine. Apart from being the highest-ranking member of the Government who has died since the start of the invasion, Monastirski, 42, directed a key area and an enormous complexity since he is in charge of the National Guard and the National Police. The first is a force created at the time as a reserve and counterinsurgency whose units fight on the front lines. Among them was the Azov Battalion, captured during the defense of the Azovstal steel works. The National Police, for its part, is in charge of maintaining order in the cities (it has been a very active part in locating ‘infiltrators’ and Russian collaborators), but it is also entrusted with the arduous task of investigating the war crimes committed. by the invading Army to transfer the results to the international court.
The death of the leadership of the ministry now forces President Volodimir Zelensky to act quickly. Hence the urgent appointment of an interim substitute for the minister. “In times of war it is not possible to maintain any weak flank,” says an analyst in the local press today and even more in this case in which the Executive did not have a ‘plan B’: it had never thought of a reaction strategy in the face of the contingency that their main ministerial heads lost their lives at the same time. The minister, as well as the deputy minister and the secretary of state, accumulated an enormous amount of tasks. kyiv cannot now afford any disengagement with law enforcement or leave a part of the country’s security system facing a vacuum of orders. Monastirski and Zelenski were good friends. They parted daily. There is a photo of the two of them reunited on Tuesday.
Born on July 12, 1980 in Khmelnitsky, a graduate of the local University Law Faculty with a doctorate in the same area, the late minister began his professional career in 2007. He headed the law-making and experience department scientist at his university, where he worked as an associate professor. He was also a co-founder and member of the board of directors of the Podolia Youth Cultural Association ‘Towards the future through culture’.
His political life began when he became a volunteer assistant consultant to MP Anton Herashchenko between 2014 and 2019. During the run-up to the presidential election, Monastirski was considered a legal reform expert on the team of then-candidate Volodimir Zelensky. He then began to look at the political possibilities of the young adviser.
On May 20, 2019, when Zelensky won the elections and assumed the head of government of Ukraine, Monastitsky became the candidate of the Servant of the People party for Parliament. He got his seat thanks to great support, since he was considered the politician with the best legislative ideas. Later he was promoted to the direction of the Ministry of the Interior after the resignation of Arsen Avakov in July 2021. Avakov left his post as a result of political and public pressure due to an infrequent series of complaints about police abuses, although official sources have wanted to correct later this version stating that Zelenski was the one who fired him. He had led the ministry since 2014 and was considered one of the most powerful politicians in the country.
Front visits
Monastirski has closely followed the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Just before the invasion, he was in charge of the border forces skirmishing with the Russians on the Donbas divide and monitoring the exercises of the Kremlin Army. He used to go to the front, talk to the troops and on one occasion it is said that he was about to be wounded by a Russian shell near the border. He and his team used to travel frequently to the ‘hot’ areas, as happened this Wednesday before they lost their lives. Firm in his condemnation of the crimes against humanity committed by the invaders against civilians, he promoted coordination between the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office in the investigation of massacres such as those in Bucha and Mariúpol. He was also part of the committee responsible for demining the country.
Along with him, two other relevant figures in Ukrainian politics have died in the plane crash: the first deputy minister, Evgeni Yenin, and the secretary of state, Yuriy Lubkovich. Jenin rose from deputy foreign minister to first deputy during Monastirsky’s term. During his stay at the Foreign Ministry, he strengthened relations between Ukraine and Hispanic countries such as Cuba and Guatemala. He was deputy attorney general prosecuting cases of officials linked to corruption, a position he resigned in 2019. As a member of the ministry, he was in charge of the reform of the National Police, the State Migration Service and the Emergency Service.