(Reuters) - 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. 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. The source told Ukrainska Pravda that Chastyakov, 39, was a graduate of a military academy and fully trained in handling grenades. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had denied any suggestion that the war has entered into a stalemate.

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Persons: Major Hennady Chastyakov, Valery Zaluzhnyi, Chastyakov's, Ukrainska, Zaluzhnyi, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ron Popeski, Bill Berkrot Organizations: Reuters, Ukraine's, Pravda, Ukrainska Pravda, Economist