Interior Minister Monastyrskyj dies in helicopter crash

by time news

In the first reports of a helicopter crash near Kyiv, the location of the crash was particularly highlighted: it fell right next to a kindergarten in a residential area. Pictures from the crash site showed a widespread fire, so it was quickly suspected that children could be among the victims.

That soon became true – but that news faded into the background when police revealed who was on board the helicopter who died in the crash: Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyj, his first deputy and a state secretary. All nine of the 18 people killed by the morning were on board the helicopter. Authorities also confirmed the deaths of two children. There was a fear that more victims could be found under the rubble of the kindergarten.

Ukraine received the crashed Super Puma helicopter from France. The cause of the crash is still unclear. Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said that “all possible causes of the helicopter accident” were being investigated, and that the investigations had been entrusted to the SBU secret service. The spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said on TV that it would take more than a day or two for clarity. Asked by Ukrainian media whether the minister was the victim of an attack, national police chief Ihor Klymenko said it was too early to draw any conclusions.

The helicopter crashed on a building in Brovary near Kyiv.





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Ukrainian interior minister dies in helicopter crash

The helicopter belonged to the “Ukraine State Service for Extraordinary Situations” – in short: civil protection. This authority reports to the Ministry of the Interior and is responsible, among other things, for civil defense and the repair of war damage to civilian infrastructure. The 42-year-old Denys Monastyrskyj was therefore one of the most important members of the Ukrainian government.

Longtime member of Zelenskyj’s team

He was part of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s team during the spring 2019 election campaign. In the parliamentary elections that he pushed through immediately after his election victory, Monastyrskyj was elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the list of the presidential party “Servants of the People”, where he headed the committee on internal security issues.

Even before he went into politics, the lawyer Monastyrskyj had been involved in think tanks and civil society with questions of judicial and police reform. In the summer of 2021, he succeeded Arsen Avakov as interior minister, who had held the post since the 2014 revolution.


Avakov had survived five cabinet reshuffles and one presidential election at the head of the ministry; the question of why he was able to stay in office for so long despite open conflicts with Presidents Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy and numerous police scandals had led to numerous speculations in Ukraine. For Selenskyj, the appointment of Monastyrskyj as interior minister was important in terms of power politics, because the leadership of all ministries of violence was occupied by people from his environment.

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