• A helicopter crashed outside of Kyiv on Wednesday.
• Fatal crash killed at least 16 including interior minister and other high-ranking officials.
• At least 30 other people, including 12 children, are still being treated in hospitals.

Brovary helicopter crashed outside of Kyiv on Wednesday, killing at least 16 persons including the interior minister of Ukraine, other high-ranking officials, and three children.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the incident as a “sad catastrophe.”

According to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration, at least 30 other people, including 12 children, are still being treated in hospitals as a result of the incident that occurred in the city of Brovary on Wednesday.

Tymoshenko has decreased the dead toll from the crash on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, which was originally 18;

Anton Geraschenko, a ministry consultant, announced on social media that Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky, First Deputy Minister Yevheniy Yenin, and State Secretary Yuriy Lubkovychis had passed away.

According to Tymoshenko, all nine persons in the helicopter—six ministry employees and three crew members—were slain, leaving another seven people—including three children—dead on the ground. He said that the search and rescue effort was still ongoing.

A crash enquiry has been started by the Ukrainian Security Services, or SBU, who also announced on Facebook that “several interpretations of the tragedy are being evaluated.”

They include: “violation of flight rule, technical malfunction of the helicopter (and) deliberate actions to destroy the helicopter.”

No other Ukrainian officials have made any claims about Russian participation in this tragedy. The occurrence has been referred to as a “tragedy” by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine.

Gray sky and very little visibility were observed by a reputed media outlet team on the ground in the Kyiv region.

The reputed media outlet crew was able to identify that the helicopter that crashed was a Eurocopter EC225 “Super Puma” after finding pieces of flight manuals among the wreckage.

The State Emergency Services of Ukraine (SES) said that this helicopter “was repeatedly involved in the transportation of personnel to emergency sites.”

An SES statement posted on Facebook added: “The crew of the aircraft was trained to perform tasks in difficult conditions and had the required number of hours of flying time.”

According to Oleksiy Kuleba, chief of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, it fell close to a residential structure and a kindergarten.

“At the time of the tragedy, there were children and the staff in the kindergarten. At the moment, everyone was evacuated,” he wrote on Telegram.

Firefighters, police, and paramedics are rushing to the area, Kuleba continued.

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