The aide to Ukraine's top military commander was killed in what officials are characterizing as an accident. Nevertheless, the prosecutors announced on Tuesday, November 7, that they will be investigating further.
'Unfortunate Accident'
In a Facebook post by the Special Prosecutor's Office of the Central Region, Major Gennadiy Chastyakov received a package of six grenades as a birthday present from colleagues on Monday, November 6, and brought them home to the suburbs of Kyiv.
An investigation revealed that the major's son had picked up one of the explosives, said the prosecutor's office. The office claimed that the explosion occurred as the officer was taking the grenade from the kid and pulled the ring.
The blast immediately resulted in the death of Major Chastyakov, an adviser to Ukrainian military head General Valery Zaluzhny. It is also reported that the major's 11-year-old daughter was hurt slightly, and his 13-year-old son was critically injured in the bomb. There was no clarification as to why he would have removed the ring or why someone would offer the major explosives as a gift.
Maryana Reva, a spokeswoman for Ukraine's interior ministry, said on national television on Tuesday, "Based on the information gathered so far, we can assert that it was indeed an unfortunate accident, a result of careless handling of the ammunition."
The prosecutor's office said that police had tracked down the soldier who gave the grenade as a present and that, upon searching his office, they had discovered two further explosives of the same kind.
In Connection With War?
It is true that the incident was so out of the ordinary that some internet users began to doubt whether or not the aid had indeed been slain, said the New York Times. While Ukrainian officials have avoided characterizing the death as an assassination or making connections to Russia's conflict in Ukraine, Reva admitted that a requalification of the case is possible in light of the available facts.
The Ukrainian Army, whose soldiers are now mired down in inconclusive warfare with Russian forces, found themselves in a precarious position as a result of the incident. TNotably, tensions have also emerged between the military and civilian leadership in Ukraine due to the lack of progress.
There was early speculation that Major Chastyakov had been slain after reports that his wife had informed authorities that he had been killed as he attempted to open the present package.
Before Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's political environment was characterized by a number of mysterious murders and killings. Ukrainian authorities have long accused Moscow of conducting targeted killing operations in the country, frequently using clever means to do so. Experts have also pointed to disagreements tied to organized crime or internal political feuds as possible explanations for these killings.
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