Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska attend a memorial service for Ukraine's Interior Minister Denis Monastersky, his deputies and officials who were killed in a helicopter crash near Kyiv.

(Reuters)

[Central News Agency] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended a memorial service yesterday to commemorate seven senior Interior Ministry officials who were killed in a helicopter crash.

The incident is yet another blow to Ukraine, which has already lost many lives to the war.

The French-made Super Puma helicopter (Super Puma) crashed in fog near a nursery school on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv on the 18th, killing Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, his deputy and five other top officials.

Seven other people, including a child, were killed in the crash, which officials are still investigating.

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"The grief I feel in my heart is indescribable," Zelensky said in a message on the messaging app Telegram.

Germany's new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, told Bild am Sonntag that he plans to visit Ukraine in the near future.

Berlin has come under increasing pressure of late to allow German-made tanks to be sent to Ukraine.

"What is certain is that I will visit Ukraine very soon. Maybe even within the next four weeks," Pestorius told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Although Ukraine has repeatedly called on the West to provide modern tanks to strengthen its defense capabilities, Germany has agreed to provide Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, or to other countries that have such tanks. Still no decision was made at the meeting with the Western allies.

"We are in very close dialogue with our international partners on this issue, primarily with the United States," Pestorius said of the matter in an interview.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's close friend Vyacheslav Volodin, head of the lower house of parliament, said today that the West's supply of offensive weapons to Ukraine, if it threatened Russian territory, would lead to a global catastrophe and make it difficult to argue against the use of mass destruction The sexual weapon claim does not stand up.

Volodin warned that US and NATO support for Ukraine would open the world to a "terrible war".

"If weapons provided by Washington and NATO countries are used to attack (Russian) civilian towns and attempt to occupy our territories, this will lead to retaliatory measures with more powerful weapons," he said in a Telegram post.