Village council member in Ukraine sets off hand grenades during a meeting and injures 26

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A village council member in western Ukraine detonated three hand grenades during a meeting Friday, critically injuring himself and at least two dozen other people, authorities said.

A video posted on social media showed a man entering a room where the village council of Keretsky was meeting to discuss and approve the community’s budget.

The man, who was preliminary identified as Serhii Batryn, a council member who belongs to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, took three grenades from his pockets, removed the pins and threw the weapons on the floor in front of him.

Thranscarpathian region police said in an official statement that 26 people were injured, six of them critically. The man who set off the grenades suffered grave injuries and medics worked to save his life, police said.

There was no immediate word on a possible motive or if the attack was somehow connected to Russia’s war in Ukraine.