Ukraine updates: Kyiv decries awards ceremony deaths

A close advisor to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army was killed when an "unknown explosive device" detonated inside a birthday present.

"Under tragic circumstances, my assistant and close friend, Major Gennadiy Chastiakov, was killed," General Valery Zaluzhny wrote on Telegram on Monday.

Ukrainian media reported that the death was presumed to be an accident. The major had reportedly been given live grenades as a birthday present, one of which detonated due to careless handling.

Police referred to the incident as a "careless handling of ammunition."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said holding elections during a war would create too much political division at a time when the country needs to be united.

Elections have been postponed in Ukraine under martial law, but there have recently been calls to hold a vote early next year, and the Ukrainian president himself previously mulled the option.

"I think that elections are not appropriate now," Zelenskyy said in his evening address on Monday.

The resources of the state should instead be focused on "victory" over Russia, he added.

"And we all understand that in times of war, when there are many challenges, it is absolutely irresponsible to throw the topic of elections into society lightly and playfully," Zelenskyy said.

Polish heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers blocked three border crossings to Ukraine on Monday. 

They were protesting what they say is a loss of business to foreign competitors since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a lack of action against it by the government in Warsaw.  

The dispute is similar to one led by Polish farmers earlier in the war, upset at what they saw as pressure on their domestic market as a result of increased imports from Ukraine that might in peacetime have been exported further afield by sea.

Truckers from Ukraine have been exempt from seeking permits to cross the Polish border since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. And the Polish truckers say that Russian and Belarusian companies have also been setting up entities inside Poland to keep a foothold in the EU. 

They were demanding a reintroduction of restrictions on the number of Ukraine-registered HGVs entering Poland, and a ban on transport companies with capital from outside the EU in Poland. 

Oleksandr Kubrakov, a minister in Ukraine's government's Ministry for the Restoration of Ukraine with responsibility among other things for infrastructure, said that Kyiv was working with the Polish government and the European Commission to resolve the situation. 

"Our official position is that blocking the border harms the interests and economies of both countries. It also affects the functioning of the Solidarity Lines which intended to export [Ukrainian] agricultural products. At the same time, we are ready for a constructive dialogue that will consider the interests of the carriers of both countries," Kubrakov said.

Ukraine's ambassador in Warsaw, Vasyl Zvarych, had earlier called the border blockage a "painful stab in the back" for Kyiv. 

Russian aerial strikes in Odesa wounded eight people and significantly damaged a historic art museum.

Images seemed to show the art from Odesa Fine Arts Museum, in the southern part of Ukraine, ripped off the walls with windows blown out following an overnight bombardment.

Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzheppar called on the United Nations' Paris-based heritage agency UNESCO to condemn the strike. 

A lot of the collection usually housed at the museum had been removed during the war, according to the governor of the Odesa region, Oleg Kiper.

Kyiv said that Russian forces had launched four missiles and nearly multiple attack drones from occupied regions of the country in the south overnight.

Multiple Ukrainian soldiers have been killed after a Russian missile strike hit a military "awards ceremony" in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Exact numbers on those killed in the attack differ, with soldiers from the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade said to have those being honoured at the ceremony.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lamented the avoidable loss of life, saying: "This is a tragedy that could have been avoided. A criminal investigation has been registered into the tragedy."

"The main thing is to establish the full truth about what happened and to prevent this from happening again."

One Ukrainian soldier took to social media to criticize commanders for having held the ceremony 

“Everyone is writing that ‘Heroes died’. Although it is more appropriate to write ‘Heroes became victims’,” soldier Ivan Savytskyy said. "They became victims of military rudimentary traditionalism in its worst form."

km/jcg (AFP, dpa, AP, Reuters)