Boy Killed by Falling Ramp on Captured Ukrainian Vehicle at Russian War Exhibit

A four-year-old boy died Saturday, April 26, after being struck by a ramp at an exhibition of captured military equipment from the war in Ukraine, Meduza reported, citing local media reports.

The child was visiting the exhibit in Komsomolsk-on-Amur city with his father when he approached an American-made M113 armored personnel carrier, which had been seized by Russian forces in Ukraine.

The vehicle’s folding ramp suddenly opened and hit him on the head, Komcity and DVhab reported. He died in an ambulance from a traumatic brain injury.

Witnesses said the ramp may have been triggered by another child pulling a lever inside the vehicle. Others said the door may have opened on its own.

The exhibition, which opened on April 25, displays equipment captured from “Ukrainian and NATO forces,” according to the state news agency RIA Novosti.

Following the incident, authorities cordoned off the display area with tape as emergency services arrived.

Ukraine has received around 250 various M113 variants from the US and other Western allies, including Lithuania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. Many have been “up armored” with 25 mm add-on steel screens designed to disrupt the shaped charge warheads used by most hand-held anti-tank weapons as well as 12.7 mm armored-piercing ammunition. It is resistant to large fragments and shrapnel from artillery and mortar rounds.

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