KARETSKY, UKRAINE – A routine village council meeting in Ukraine was shattered when a local politician set off multiple grenades, resulting in 26 injuries.
The shocking event occurred on a Friday morning at the headquarters of the Karetsky village council, nestled in the mountainous Zakarpattia region of western Ukraine. The Ukrainian national police have identified the attacker as a councilor.
A video shared on Facebook by the police shows a man clothed in black interrupting a heated council meeting. The room erupts in screams as the man extracts three hand grenades from his pockets, unhooks the safety pins, and drops them, triggering a series of explosions.
The police, in their official statement, reported that “26 people were wounded, six of whom are in grave condition.” They also mentioned attempting to revive the suspect, whose identity remains undisclosed.
In response to the attack, the Ukrainian Secret Service (SBU) has launched a terrorism investigation. The police have also reportedly initiated a separate investigation into the unlawful handling of firearms in connection with the incident.
Recently, Major Hennadiy Chastyakov, a senior aide in the Ukrainian military command, was killed on his birthday by an explosive device hidden in one of his presents. The explosion also left his 13-year-old son with severe injuries.
The fatal event took place in Chastyakov’s Kyiv home on Monday, as detailed in a Telegram post by the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Veleriy Zaluzhnyy. The explosive, an unidentified device, was concealed within a birthday gift.
Pictures from the scene showed several objects resembling grenades near a box of alcohol and a package from a Ukrainian clothing brand. According to Zaluzhnyy’s post, the explosion was caused by a gift box filled with six grenades, allegedly given to Chastyakov by his colleagues.
Further information about the incident was provided by Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, in another Telegram post. Klymenko explained that Chastyakov’s son initially handled the munition, but the serviceman took it from him and accidentally triggered the explosion.
The Ukrainian police described the incident as the result of “careless handling of ammunition” in the family’s apartment in Chaiky, a western suburb of Kyiv. After the explosion, five more unexploded grenades were found in the box and handed over to officials for further investigation.
The investigation led to the identification of the colleague who had given Chastyakov the deadly gift, with two additional grenades found at the suspects’ homes. Klymenko confirmed that another member of the Ukrainian army sent the grenades.
Following the tragedy, Zaluzhnyy expressed his grief over the loss of Chastyakov, whom he described as a “reliable shoulder.” He acknowledged the “unspeakable pain and heavy loss” that Chastyakov’s death brought to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and him personally. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Chastyakov has dedicated his life to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the fight against Russian aggression.
His wife and four children survive Chastyakov. It is still unclear if anyone else was injured in the explosion.