Kyiv helicopter crash is a grave blow to Ukraine’s war efforts and a personal loss for Zelensky

The president has lost one of his closest confidantes just as the war faces an escalation in fighting, says World Affairs Editor Kim Sengupta

Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos by video on Wednesday (AFP via Getty Images)

In the days leading up to the war in Ukraine there was still flickering hope that negotiations could work out and that peace would prevail in the gathering darkness.

However, interior minister Denys Monastyrsky had little doubt Vladimir Putin was determined to invade. To demonstrate the extent of Moscow’s military build-up on the border, he took a group of journalists to the Donbas.

In the town of Novoluhanske, we came under sustained fire. “You see, they did this without provocation,” he exclaimed as we took cover. “This is what the people around here have to live with every day. The Russians are creating false stories and carrying out this kind of bombing, they are creating excuses for war.”