Major Gennady Chiastyakov, a close associate of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhnyi, was killed in the explosion of a grenade he received for his birthday, the independent publication The Moscow Times reports. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine provided an explanation in this case after media coverage of a possible murder.

“Under tragic circumstances, my assistant and close friend Major Gennady Chiastyakov died (…) on his birthday,” said Zaluzhny.

“An unknown explosive device exploded in one of his gifts,” he said Monday evening, announcing the opening of a “preliminary investigation.”

The wife of councilor Zaluzhny said that the grenade that exploded in her husband’s hands was in a gift bag that he brought home, Ukrainian Pravda reports.

Although initially the press talked about a possible murder with the help of a “gift trap”, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko reported what actually happened on the MP’s birthday.

According to him, Chastyakov celebrated his birthday on November 6 and returned home to the village of Chayki in the Kyiv region with gifts from his colleagues.

Klymenko said that Chastyakov showed his 13-year-old son a box with “Western” grenades inside, which he received as a gift.

“At first, the son took the cartridges in his hands and started turning the ring. Then the soldier took the grenade from the child and pulled the ring, causing a tragic explosion,” Klymenko said, according to The Moscow Times.

Chastyakov died, and his son was seriously injured and was taken to the hospital. Other family members were not injured.

After the incident, law enforcement officers found five more grenades in the apartment of the adviser to the head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which were taken for examination, Klymenko said.

According to him, the police managed to establish the identity of the soldier who handed over the ammunition to Zaluzhny’s adviser. His office was searched and two identical grenades were seized.

The representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Maryana Reva, officially qualified the event as “an explosion due to careless handling of ammunition.”

A source of “Ukrainian Pravda” in the General Staff reported that 39-year-old Major Chastyakov graduated from the Odesa Military Academy and knows how to handle a grenade.

However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine stated that in the case of this tragedy, there can be no question of an assassination attempt, nor of the involvement of Russians.