The helicopter crash that killed senior Ukrainian officials on Wednesday left a void in a war-critical cabinet ministry just as Kyiv braces for a possible Russian offensive in the spring and endures relentless long-range attacks on its civilian infrastructure.
Interior Minister Denys Monastryrsky, a trusted adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was responsible for the country’s internal security, was among at least 14 people who died when the helicopter crashed in Brovary, a small town outside of Kyiv, on Wednesday. Also killed were Yevhen Yenin, the first deputy interior minister, and Yurii Lubkovich, the ministry’s state secretary, according to the Ukrainian parliament.
Mr. Zelensky called each death “the result of the war” and linked the incident to the invasion of Russia, although investigators are considering whether mechanical failure, pilot error, sabotage — or an entirely different factor — caused the crash. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said the government officials on board had traveled to a combat zone.
Whatever the cause, the fallout from the crash is clear: a member of Mr. Zelensky’s inner circle who had somehow managed to remain intact since the beginning of the war is gone. And the disaster comes just as Kyiv is renewing a diplomatic push for some of its allies’ deadliest weapons, as its key backers fear there will not be enough time to allow Ukraine’s military to break the impasse with Russian forces before then Moscow launches another ground attack.
The crash happened hours earlier Mr. Zelensky addressed world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerlandfor more advanced weapons, including tanks and anti-aircraft missiles, and two days before NATO defense ministers and other officials are scheduled to gather at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany to discuss whether to send additional powerful tanks to support Ukraine’s defense efforts.
Mr Monastryrsky, the senior government official who died since Russia invaded Ukraine last February, oversaw tens of thousands of Ukrainians fighting to defend their country as part of the police, national guard and border forces.
Mr Monastryrsky, 42, also this week led rescue and recovery efforts in Dnipro, where a Russian missile killed 45 people in one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the nearly year-long war.
In his late-night address on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky said Mr Monastyrsky’s responsibilities had been redistributed and that the head of the country’s national police force, Igor Klymenko, will head the ministry until a replacement is elected.