Monastyrskyj crashed near Kyiv
Scholz speaks of a “sad day” for Ukraine
01/18/2023 2:59 p.m
After the sudden death of the Ukrainian interior minister in a helicopter crash, the political leaders in Germany and the EU mourn with Ukraine. Federal Interior Minister Faeser offers Kyiv help in solving the accident. Chancellor Scholz expresses his condolences.
After the helicopter crash near Kyiv that killed at least 16, Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of a “sad day” for Ukraine. The crash again shows “the immense toll that Ukraine is paying in this war,” Scholz said on Twitter. “On this sad day, our thoughts are with the relatives of the victims and the injured” as well as with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “who lost his interior minister today,” added Scholz.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyj was among those killed in the helicopter crash in the city of Bovary, bordering Kiev. The Ukrainian authorities initially put the number of dead at at least 18, but later corrected the number down to 16. In addition, around 30 people were injured, including 12 children. The helicopter crashed near a kindergarten.
The cause of the crash is still unclear. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser offered Ukraine German help in investigating the crash. Faeser said that she had made a corresponding offer to the Ukrainian Ambassador Oleksii Makeiev in a telephone call. In the conversation, she also expressed her “heartfelt sympathy,” explained Faeser. “The ambassador told me that the causes are still unclear and are now being investigated,” she added.
Monastyrskyj was “energetic, courageous, strong”
Faeser described it as “terrible that children died and were injured”. With the minister’s death, she “lost a close partner,” explained Faeser. “We have been in good, close contact since the beginning of the war.” She experienced Monastyrskyj “as an active, courageous, strong, young interior minister who stood for all the courage with which Ukraine is defending itself against the barbaric Russian war,” explained Faeser.
Deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner expressed the federal government’s “dismay” at the crash and “our heartfelt condolences”. The EU leaders also reacted with dismay to the death of the Ukrainian interior minister. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed her deepest condolences to the families of the victims, to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and to the whole of Ukraine. “We mourn with you,” wrote the German on Twitter.
EU Council President Charles Michel made a similar statement. Monastyrskyj was a good friend of the European Union. EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola was “heartbroken”. Her thoughts are with the families and relatives of Monastyrskyj and the other victims.