Zaluzhnyi's aide blown up in Kyiv region

An informed source told Espreso, and the National Police cited similar information. According to the police, the explosion occurred in the village of Chaiky as a result of careless handling of ammunition. A 39-year-old serviceman was killed, and his 13-year-old son was seriously injured and hospitalized.

At the same time, our sources report, citing his wife, that the man came with birthday gifts. When he opened one of them, there was an explosion. It was probably a box with a bottle and glasses.

General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, has already spoken about the tragedy.

"It is an indescribable pain and a heavy loss for the Armed Forces and for me personally. Today, under tragic circumstances, my assistant and close friend, Major Hennadiy Chastiakov, was killed in his family circle on his birthday. An unknown explosive device detonated in one of his gifts. Hennadiy is survived by his wife and four children. My deepest condolences to the family," Zaluzhnyi wrote on his Telegram channel.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs later commented on this information.

"According to the information received from the police and the investigative team that arrived at the scene, it was a detonation due to careless handling of ammunition," said Mariana Reva, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on the Espreso TV channel.

"All the circumstances will be examined thoroughly and objectively. Now the information is coming in real time, so we need to give investigators the opportunity to work, collect evidence, conduct all the examinations and interviews as part of the pre-trial investigation. Then we will have an unbiased picture. According to our information, the 13-year-old son was seriously injured and is under medical supervision," the Interior Ministry spokeswoman added.

• On November 1, The Economist published Valerii Zaluzhnyi's column for the first time since December 2022.

• Zaluzhnyi noted that Russia's war against Ukraine could move to a new dangerous stage and named priority areas whose development would help prevent this. He also explained what is needed to break the deadlock in the war with Russia.

• Later, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to Zaluzhnyi's article and said that Ukraine was not in a stalemate.

• Also, Deputy Head of the President's Office Ihor Zhovkva, commenting on an article by Valerii Zaluzhnyi in The Economist, said that the military should not make public what is happening at the front.