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Ukraine: Interior Minister's death 'like a family loss'

The three main figures in Ukraine's interior ministry have been killed in a helicopter crash.

The three main figures in Ukraine's interior ministry have been killed in a helicopter crash beside a nursery in an eastern suburb of the capital Kyiv.

Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, 42, died alongside his first deputy minister and state secretary.

Fourteen people died when the helicopter came down in Brovary around 08:30 local time (06:30 GMT), including one child, authorities said.

There is no indication the crash was anything other than an accident.

But the SBU state security service said it was following several possible causes for the crash, which included sabotage as well as a technical malfunction or breach of flight rules.

Mr Monastyrsky, who was one of President Volodymyr Zelensky's longest serving political advisers, is the highest profile Ukrainian casualty since the war began.

Newshour's Razia Iqbal has been speaking to one of his colleagues, Ukrainian MP Maria Mezentseva, who spoke to her from the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Photo shows: Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Denys Monastyrsky in July 2022. Credit: EPA

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