Ukraine confirms eight servicemen killed in helicopter crash

Eight Ukrainian servicemen were killed today when their Soviet-made Mi-8 helicopter went down in southern Ukraine, the Defence Ministry said.

The crash occurred in the Kherson region, some 360 miles south of the capital Kiev.

The aircraft was in the air to test its readiness for a paratroopers’ exercise, the ministry said. No civilian casualties were reported.

First Deputy Defence Minister Ivan Bizhan left for the area to investigate the accident, while Defence Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk interrupted his visit to a weapons show in the United Arab Emirates to return home.

The Ukrainian military grounded all its helicopters until the circumstances of the accident could be clarified.

The aircraft is a traditional workhorse for both civilian and army uses in the former Soviet republics. More than 12,000 Mi-8 helicopters and its subtypes were produced in the Soviet Union and then Russia since 1961, and many are reaching the limit of their service life.

On Monday, a Russian Border Guards’ Mi-8 crashed in the central Russian city of Ulyanovsk, killing three crew members, officials said.

It was not known what caused the crash.