Ukraine commander’s assistant killed by booby-trapped birthday present

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief said on Monday that his assistant, a major in rank, was killed when a booby-trapped birthday present he had been given exploded.

“My assistant and close friend, Major Hennady Chastyakov, was killed in tragic circumstances on his birthday in a family setting,” General Valery Zaluzhnyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “An unknown explosive device went off in one of his presents.”

The Ukrainska Pravda online news outlet said a security source was told by Chastyakov’s wife that the gift was a bottle of liquor in the form of a grenade that he had brought home. It exploded when he opened it.

Chastyakov’s 13-year-old son suffered serious injuries.

The source told Ukrainska Pravda that Chastyakov, 39, was a graduate of a military academy and fully trained in handling grenades.

Zaluzhnyi has had a high profile in the more than 20-month-old Russian invasion. Last week, he wrote an essay in the Economist magazine saying the war had entered a new phase of attrition that was to Russia’s advantage and calling for more sophisticated technology for Ukraine’s military.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had denied any suggestion that the war has entered into a stalemate.