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At least 37 people have been killed in a Russian drone strike on a Ukrainian weapons and ammunition depot near the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said. Around 400 people were evacuated following the incident.
The attack took place late Friday night at a military arms depot near a residential area in the village of Myla, in Kyiv’s Bucha district.
The strike triggered explosions involving ammunition, mines and drones, damaging nearby buildings, including a care facility for elderly and disabled people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the weapons storage facility should not have been located there and ordered an investigation into allegations of “gross negligence” over the storage of explosives so close to residential areas.
According to Kyiv regional chief Tymur Tkachenko, 42 people, including four children, were injured in the explosions. Rescue operations continued at the site on Saturday. Around 130 houses in the village were reportedly damaged.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had targeted “an ammunition warehouse” in Myla, west of Kyiv, which it claimed contained components and launch boosters for FP-1 and FP-2 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles.
The incident has triggered renewed anger in Ukraine over the storage of ammunition near populated areas. It was the second attack on an arms depot near Kyiv in recent months.
Zelenskyy said storing explosives near homes was unacceptable and that criminal proceedings had been opened over alleged official negligence. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said it was reviewing the legality of storing explosive materials near residential buildings and would investigate the actions of officials involved in the decision.
The president recalled a similar attack on an ammunition depot in Vyshneve in July, when subsequent explosions killed nine people, injured dozens and damaged more than 280 houses. An investigation into that incident found serious negligence by a state-owned company, which had failed to follow regulations governing the storage of explosives near residential areas.
Residents described the latest blast as devastating. A local resident, 45-year-old Lyubov Pavlenko, told the BBC that cracks had appeared throughout her house, including around the windows, and that the building had suffered structural damage.
Meanwhile, Tkachenko said a 14-year-old was killed in a separate attack in the Boryspil district. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a two-year-old child was killed after a Russian drone crashed in the capital’s Obolonskyi district. At least five more people were injured in a fresh attack on Kyiv on Saturday morning.
Ukrainian officials said five people were killed across the country over the past 24 hours. Zelenskyy said Russian attacks also targeted Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine’s military claimed to have shot down 233 Russian drones.
Meanwhile, Russian officials reported Ukrainian attacks in several regions. Two people were killed and 25 injured in attacks in the Belgorod and Rostov regions, according to local authorities.
The Moscow-appointed governor of occupied Zaporizhzhia said four people were injured after a Ukrainian strike hit a shopping centre. Russian online retailer Ozon also said a Ukrainian drone attack damaged one of its logistics centres, forcing the company to suspend operations at another facility and evacuate workers.
Russia and Ukraine have intensified their aerial attacks in recent months, with Kyiv saying many of its strikes target Russian economic and military-related infrastructure, while Moscow continues to launch drone and missile attacks across Ukraine.
