Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife attended, this Saturday, the funeral of relatives who died in a helicopter accident on Wednesday.
This Saturday, Denys Monastyrsky, Ukrainian Interior Minister, and seven other civil servants were entitled to a state funeral, three days after having perished in a still unexplained helicopter accident.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska attended the funeral held in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Funeral for late interior minister, other victims of Jan. 18 helicopter crash takes place in Kyiv.
Top officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife, Olena, attended the funeral, offering condolences to the relatives of the crash victims.
ud83dudcf7Getty Images pic.twitter.com/Zi1urvQKfL
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) January 21, 2023
Zelensky and his wife laid flowers on seven coffins draped in the flag of Ukraine and addressed the families. Despite the cameras of the whole world trained on him, Volodymyr Zelensky could not hold back his tears. Minister of the Interior, Denys Monastyrsky was above all one of those closest to the Ukrainian president.
This video published by President Zelensky shows the funeral ceremony for late Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky and other ministry employees who were killed in the Jan. 18 helicopter crash near Kyiv.
“Ukraine loses its best sons and daughters every day,” Zelensky wrote. pic.twitter.com/xw6jka7gRJ
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) January 21, 2023
The interior minister is the highest Ukrainian official killed since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The helicopter crashed into a kindergarten in Kyiv on Wednesday killing 18 people in total.
For Zelensky, this accident was not one. “There are no accidents in wartime,” he explained Thursday, blaming Vladimir Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The investigation is ongoing. There are several theories and I am not authorized to speak about them until the investigation is complete,” he also added.