Boy, 16, is crushed to death by tank at Russian display of captured Ukrainian military equipment
A young boy was crushed to death under a tank on display at an exhibition in Russia where military equipment seized in Ukraine was exhibited.
The incident occurred Tuesday in Yakutsk, Russia, after a 16-year-old boy was knocked to the ground by a heavy, moving metal piece inside the tank and died instantly, Mayor Yevgeny Grigoryev said.
The teenager and another 17-year-old boy climbed into the tank through an opening in the engine compartment after a panel was removed.
According to local media reports, it is believed that the 16-year-old boy fell and crushed himself when the support holding the tank’s barrel broke.
The incident took place in the museum ‘Russia – My History’, which has a current exhibition of military equipment.
Organizers describe the exhibit as trophy equipment captured by Russian troops in Ukraine, including an American-made Bradley armored car and a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier.
While the prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into the incident, the Investigative Committee, Russia’s highest investigative body, said that it opened a criminal case on suspicion of causing death by negligence.
Meanwhile, Mayor Grigoryev urged parents to ensure that children do not play unsupervised around ‘potentially dangerous objects’.
A young boy died after being run over by a tank in Russia
The incident in Russia emerged when the Kremlin battered Ukraine with more than 300 unmanned aerial vehicles, ballistic and cruise missiles in its latest attack on the Ukrainian power grid at night.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack disabled the heating systems of more than 5,600 apartment buildings in the capital.
About 80 percent of affected buildings had recently had heating supplies restored following a massive Russian dam on Jan. 9 that plunged thousands of people into days-long power outages, it said.
Ukraine is experiencing one of the coldest winters in recent years, with temperatures dropping to minus 20 C in Kiev.
At the same time, Russia has stepped up air strikes on electricity supplies to deny Ukrainians heat and running water and wear down their resistance, almost four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
