By The opinion
07 Nov 2023, 22:10 PM EST
A senior advisor to the commander of the Ukrainian army was killed by a grenade given to him as a birthday gift, not in a targeted attack, said the country’s interior minister, so it was ruled out that it was a terrorist act.
Major Henadiy Chastyakov died in Monday’s tragic accident and his 13-year-old son was seriously injured, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
The office of the special defense prosecutor for the central region of Ukraine said the assistant, Maj. Gennadiy Chastyakov, He had returned to his home on the outskirts of kyiv on Monday with birthday gifts from colleagues that included a box containing six grenades. The prosecution said that one of the grenades had been picked up by the elder’s son.
🇷🇺🇺🇦| Police sources indicate that Zaluzhny’s assistant, Gennady Chastyakov, died as a result of the explosion of a grenade that came in a gift. pic.twitter.com/BIRx245r3y
— ShinRa News Network (@NewsShinra) November 6, 2023
Chastyakov was showing the pomegranates to his family at home when his son picked one up and started twisting the ring.
“The soldier then took the grenade from the boy and pulled the ring, causing a tragic explosion,” Klymenko said, as quoted by The New York Times.
Police are investigating the incident that occurred in the village of Chaiky, kyiv region.
General Zaluzhnyi paid tribute to Chastyakov in a post on the Telegram messaging app, praising his aide as a “reliable shoulder” to lean on since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
He said Chastyakov’s death had left him with “indescribable pain” and called it “a great loss for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and for me personally.”
For her part, Maryana Reva, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Interior Minister, said that, “Based on the information collected so far, “We can affirm that it was indeed an unfortunate accident, the result of careless handling of the ammunition.”.
The officer’s death was the second fatal tragedy in less than a week for the Ukrainian army.
A Ukrainian brigade holding a ceremony in Zaporizhzhia to honor troops on Friday was hit by a Russian missile that killed 19 soldiers, one of the deadliest attacks reported by Ukrainian forces.
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