KIEV, Dec. 25 - Ukraine’s Interior Ministry says one of its helicopters has crashed in the central part of the country, killing all 5 people on board, The Associated Press reported.

Ministry spokesman Serhiy Burlakov said a Mi-8 helicopter slammed into the ground shortly after taking off from an airport in the city of Alexandria in the Kirovograd region, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of the capital, Kiev.