You're reading: Russian Foreign Ministry: Russian, Belarusian killed in Congo helicopter crash

Moscow - The people killed in an air crash in Congo last Monday were not Ukrainians but citizens of Russia and Belarus, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“A Mi-2 helicopter owned by the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Congo crashed 150 kilometers north of the Congolese capital near the town of Mbuambe on July 16. According to the Russian Embassy in Brazzaville, a Russian citizen, S. P. Korostel, and a Belarusian citizen, M. F. Cherenkov, are among the helicopter crew members who were killed,” the ministry said on its Web site on Wednesday. 

“In close contact with the authorities of the Republic of Congo, the Russian Embassy is preparing the documentation required for the repatriation of the victims’ remains and monitoring the investigation by the Congolese aviation specialists into the causes and circumstances of this tragic incident,” the ministry said.

Earlier reports said that Ukrainian citizens were killed in the air crash.