Thirty-seven people have died and almost 400 have been evacuated after a Russian drone strike hit a depot storing weapons for Ukraine's military near a residential area on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Thirty-seven people have died and almost 400 have been evacuated after a Russian drone strike hit a depot storing weapons for Ukraine’s military near a residential area on the outskirts of Kyiv.
The strike caused shells, mines and drones to detonate late on Friday, triggering a blast that damaged nearby properties including a care home for the elderly and disabled, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
He said the storage site “definitely shouldn’t have been there” and that an investigation had been launched into “terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosive right next to people”.
The attack is the second to hit a munitions depot near Kyiv in recent months, prompting renewed anger.
Four children are among the 42 people injured in Friday night’s explosion, according to regional head Tymur Tkachenko, with a rescue operation ongoing at the site, in the Bucha district, on Saturday.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement that its forces had targeted “an ammunition depot” in Myla, a village to the west of the Ukrainian capital, holding “components and launch boosters for FP-1/FP-2 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles”.
The explosion damaged about 130 homes in the village.
“Everything is completely damaged,” local resident Liubov Pavlenko, 45, told the BBC whileinspecting her home around 200m from the ammunition warehouse.
“There are cracks all around the entire perimeter, and cracks around the windows. Basically, the structural integrity has been compromised,” she added.
“I’m still kind of numb. I don’t know… once I come around a little tomorrow, I’ll probably have an even bigger breakdown.”
Zelensky said the decision to store explosives in the village was “absolutely unacceptable”, adding: “Criminal proceedings have been opened on charges of official negligence.”
The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general earlier said it was reviewing the “legality of the placement and storage of explosive objects and materials” near residential buildings in Myla.
It said the “actions of officials who made the relevant decisions” would also be investigated.
However, Zelensky earlier stated that “there are regulations in place – ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas”, adding “appropriate conclusions will certainly be drawn”.
He referenced the strike on an ammunition warehouse in Vyshneve in July, which caused a secondary detonation that killed nine, injured dozens more and damaged more than 280 homes.
Friday night’s explosion has raised fresh questions about why munitions were being stored so close to people’s homes, especially given the regularity of Russian aerial attacks.
“The authorities, the Ministry of Defence – why was this allowed at the depots, in a place where there used to be food?” Borys Daniyluk, 61, said.
“Why were ammunition and weapons stored there, next to a populated village? There are no words, just emotions.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky expressed regret that a “lesson” had not been learned following the explosion in Vyshneve.
The investigation into that incident revealed serious failings on the part of a state-owned company that had not complied with regulations regarding storage of explosives near residential buildings.
Zelensky indicated that the Myla depot had been operated by Ukraine’s armed forces.
“In the fifth year of the full-scale invasion, making the same mistakes over and over is criminal negligence,” Koretsky said on Telegram.
“Everyone responsible, without exception, must face severe punishment so that such situations never happen again.”
Meanwhile, Tkachenko 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 had died after a Russian drone crashed in Obolonskyi.
He added that five people, including an 18-year-old girl, were injured in fresh strikes on the capital on Saturday morning. Five people have been killed across the country over the past day, according to local officials.
Zelensky reported further overnight strikes in Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia, as the Ukrainian army said it had shot down 233 Russian drones.
Russia and Ukraine have been intensifying their aerial attacks in recent months, with Kyiv focusing its operations on Russian economic targets.
Ukraine has for weeks struck sites belonging to Wildberries, the country’s biggest online retailer, describing the firm as a legitimate target because it supplied components to the military, which Moscow denies.
In Russia, local officials said two people had been killed and 25 injured in strikes in the Belgorod and Rostov regions in the past 24 hours.
The Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied Ukrainian region of Zaphorizhzhia said four people were injured after a Ukrainian strike hit a shopping centre.
Russian online retailer Ozon said one of its logistic centres had been hit in an overnight Ukrainian drone strike. It said it had also suspended operations at a second logistics centre and evacuate staff “due to the danger in the area”.
The retailer’s facilities in Krasnodar, Dagestan, Stavropol and Adygea were targeted in strikes earlier this week, resulting in several injuries and widespread damage.
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