37 killed as Russian drone strike triggers blast at Ukraine weapons depot
At least 37 people have been killed and nearly 400 evacuated after a Russian drone strike hit a Ukrainian military weapons depot near a residential community on the outskirts of Kyiv.
The attack, which occurred late Friday, triggered a series of explosions involving ammunition, mines and drones stored at the facility. The blasts damaged several nearby buildings, including a care facility for elderly and disabled people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Zelensky described the location of the depot as inappropriate and ordered an investigation into what he called “terrible negligence” by officials who allowed explosives to be stored so close to residential areas.
The incident is the second major strike on a weapons storage facility near Kyiv in recent months, intensifying concerns over the safety of ammunition depots located near populated communities.
Regional governor Tymur Tkachenko said 42 people were injured in Friday night’s explosions, including four children. Emergency crews continued search-and-rescue operations at the site in Bucha district on Saturday.
Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed that its forces had targeted an ammunition depot in Myla, a village west of Kyiv. Moscow said the facility contained components and launch boosters for FP-1 and FP-2 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles.
Local resident Liubov Pavlenko, 45, said her home had suffered extensive damage. She told the BBC that cracks had appeared throughout the property, including around the windows, and that the building’s structural stability had been affected.
Zelensky called the decision to keep explosives in the village “absolutely unacceptable” and said criminal proceedings had been opened over alleged official negligence.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said it was examining whether the placement and storage of explosives near residential buildings in Myla complied with the law. Officials responsible for approving the storage arrangements will also be investigated.
Zelensky stressed that existing regulations prohibit the storage of ammunition near homes and other populated areas, saying authorities would draw the necessary conclusions from the incident.
The latest explosion has also revived memories of a July blast at an ammunition depot in Vyshneve, which killed nine people, injured dozens and damaged more than 280 homes after a secondary explosion.
The repeated incidents have prompted residents to question why military supplies were being kept so close to populated areas despite the continuing threat of Russian air attacks.
Resident Borys Daniyluk, 61, questioned why authorities and the Defence Ministry had permitted weapons and ammunition to be stored at a site that had previously been used for food storage and was located beside a populated village.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky expressed frustration that authorities had apparently failed to learn from the Vyshneve incident. An investigation into that explosion had uncovered serious violations by a state-owned company that failed to comply with regulations governing the storage of explosives near residential buildings.
Zelensky said the Myla depot was operated by Ukraine’s armed forces.
Koretsky said repeatedly making the same mistakes years into the full-scale war amounted to criminal negligence and called for everyone responsible to face severe punishment.
Meanwhile, Tkachenko reported that a separate Russian attack in the Boryspil district killed a 14-year-old. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko also said a two-year-old child was killed after a Russian drone crashed in the Obolonskyi district.
Klitschko added that five people, including an 18-year-old woman, were injured in further strikes on Kyiv on Saturday morning. Local officials said five people had been killed across Ukraine over the previous 24 hours.
Zelensky also reported overnight Russian attacks on Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine’s military said it had intercepted and destroyed 233 Russian drones.
Both Russia and Ukraine have intensified their drone and air campaigns in recent months, with Ukrainian forces increasingly targeting Russian economic and industrial infrastructure.
Ukraine has also repeatedly targeted facilities belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, arguing that the company supplies components to the Russian military. Moscow has rejected the allegation.
In Russia, authorities reported that two people were killed and 25 others injured in Ukrainian attacks across the Belgorod and Rostov regions during the previous 24 hours.
The Moscow-backed governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region said four people were injured after a Ukrainian strike hit a shopping centre.
Russian online retailer Ozon also reported that one of its logistics centres was struck during an overnight Ukrainian drone attack. The company said operations at another facility had been suspended and workers evacuated because of security concerns.
Ozon facilities in Krasnodar, Dagestan, Stavropol and Adygea had also been targeted earlier in the week, causing injuries and significant damage.
Source: BBC
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