At least 37 people have been killed and nearly 400 others evacuated after a Russian drone strike hit a weapons storage depot near a residential area on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
The attack, which occurred late Friday, triggered a series of explosions after shells, mines and drones stored at the facility detonated, causing extensive damage to nearby buildings.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the blast also affected a care home housing elderly and disabled people.
Zelensky described the decision to store explosives near residential buildings as unacceptable and announced that an investigation had been launched into what he called possible official negligence.
“The storage site definitely shouldn’t have been there,” Zelensky said, adding that authorities were investigating the circumstances surrounding the storage of explosives close to residents.
The strike occurred in the Bucha district, west of Kyiv, where rescue operations were still ongoing on Saturday.
Regional head Tymur Tkachenko said at least 42 people, including four children, were injured in the explosion.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence confirmed that its forces had targeted what it described as an ammunition depot in Myla, a village west of Kyiv.
According to the Russian military, the facility contained components and launch boosters for FP-1 and FP-2 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles.
Ukrainian authorities have opened criminal proceedings over the storage of explosive materials near residential areas.
The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said it was examining the legality of the placement and storage of explosive materials close to homes and would also investigate the actions of officials involved in approving the facility.
Zelensky said regulations prohibited ammunition from being stored close to residential buildings and promised that those responsible would face the consequences of any violations.
The incident is the second major strike on a munitions storage facility near Kyiv in recent months.
In July, a strike on an ammunition warehouse in Vyshneve triggered secondary explosions that killed nine people, injured dozens and damaged more than 280 homes.
Meanwhile, violence continued in other parts of Ukraine.
Authorities said a 14-year-old was killed in a separate attack in the Boryspil district, while Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said a two-year-old child died after a Russian drone crashed in the Obolonskyi area.
Five other people, including an 18-year-old woman, were injured in fresh strikes on Kyiv on Saturday morning.
Zelensky also reported overnight attacks in Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia, while the Ukrainian military said it intercepted 233 Russian drones.
Russian officials, meanwhile, reported casualties from Ukrainian attacks, saying two people were killed and 25 injured in the Belgorod and Rostov regions over the past 24 hours.
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The Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region also said four people were injured after a Ukrainian strike hit a shopping centre.
Russian online retailer Ozon said one of its logistics centres was struck during an overnight Ukrainian drone attack, while operations at another facility were suspended and staff evacuated due to security concerns.
Russia and Ukraine have intensified their aerial campaigns in recent months, with Kyiv increasingly targeting economic and logistics facilities inside Russia while Moscow continues attacks on Ukrainian military and infrastructure targets.
The latest strike near Kyiv has renewed concerns over the safety of storing military explosives close to civilian communities as the war continues to expose populated areas to the risks of secondary explosions.
