Even by the standards of Russia’s brutal invasion, it has been a painful week for Ukraine.
A devastating missile attack in Dnipro that killed 45 people was followed by a helicopter crash near Kyiv, killing 14 people.
The crash claimed the lives of three senior officials, including Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denis Monastersky, who was traveling to the front line.
He was forcing ministers to travel frequently, in a conflict where they tried to be as visible as possible.
So, is this trip – in which the minister flies to Earth to avoid detection – worth the risk?
“There are risks, but it’s important to motivate your fighters, feel the situation on the front line and make decisions first-hand,” says Volodymyr Fesenko, a political scientist at the Ukrainian Center for Political Science.
As the Interior Ministry is responsible for the National Guard, emergency services and the police force, Mr Fisenko believes the risks for Denis Monsterski were greater than for other ministers.
“Everything is impossible to anticipate and predict. There is danger for those traveling by helicopter, especially during war,” he says.
The cause of the accident at the brewery is yet to be ascertained.
Helicopters are often the mode of choice for senior figures to travel across Europe’s largest country.
“When the authorities move quickly, they can do more,” points out Anton Hiraschenko, a former MP who was an adviser to the interior minister. Monastyrskyy used to be his assistant and adviser.
“You wouldn’t travel to America by ship, would you?” Herashchenko says.
We experienced helicopter travel ourselves when we joined a trip from Kyiv to the city of Zaporizhia last summer with the Ministry of the Interior of Monstersky.
At times it felt like we were sailing on choppy water – only the sea had been replaced by the green expanse of Ukraine. Sometimes helicopters feel like they are crashing on power poles.
For the entire trip we traveled at tree level. There were moments when it felt like we were going to scratch someone’s roof.
The reason for our height? To avoid detection by Russian forces.
“Since their lives are important for the defense of their country, they have some degree of protection,” explains Mr Hiraschenko.
“But no one is safe from a missile, like the one that hit a residential block in Dnipro”.
At the other end of our trip, Denis Monstersky assessed soldiers participating in exercises in the event of a radioactive leak. The nearby nuclear power plant in the city of Enerhodar has long been under Russian control.
He then fielded questions from journalists before returning to Kyiv. 700 miles round trip.
I have seen Mr. Monstersky make several public appearances since the full-scale invasion of Russia. I remember that his convoy suddenly retreated to Azadi Square in Kyiv on February 28.
There were fears at the time that Russia could be in town at any moment, but that didn’t stop him from holding a short-notice press conference.
