Russian drone strike on Kyiv ammunition depot kills 37 as Ukraine opens negligence inquiry

Strike on Myla ammunition site

A Russian drone strike hit a commercial compound housing Ukrainian military ammunition in the village of Myla on Friday evening at approximately 20:00. The facility, located five kilometres west of the Kyiv city boundary in the Bucha district, caught fire and triggered a series of secondary detonations. Kyiv regional governor Tymur Tkachenko reported that the attack killed at least 37 people and injured more than 40 others. Among the dead was Taras Didych, the head of the Dmytrivka territorial community. The blast caused extensive damage to adjacent residential buildings, a care home for the elderly, and a facility for people with disabilities. Over 300 rescue personnel deployed to the scene, evacuating nearly 400 residents from the surrounding neighbourhood.

Negligence inquiry and government reaction

The Ukrainian prosecutor general office opened a criminal investigation into official negligence overnight to determine whether military materiel was stored illegally on the site. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the depot contained large quantities of artillery shells, landmines, and drone parts that should never have been positioned near civilians.

Those who allowed this must be held accountable for their decisions.

Prime Minister Serhij Koretskyi noted on Telegram that the blast was the second such incident in two months, following an early July depot explosion in Vyshneve that killed at least nine people. Koretskyi stated that committing the same mistake in the fifth year of the war constituted criminal negligence. Firefighters battled the blaze through the night, forcing authorities to close the main western highway from Kyiv for several hours before restoring single-lane traffic in both directions by Saturday midday.

Nationwide overnight drone barrage

The strike on Myla occurred during a wider overnight bombardment in which the Ukrainian air force reported detecting two Russian missiles and 267 drones. Ukrainian air defence units shot down 233 of the incoming unmanned aerial vehicles. In Boryspil, east of Kyiv, a separate drone strike killed a 14-year-old girl. Further south, Russian drones targeted transport infrastructure in the Danube river port of Izmail in the Odesa region. Regional governor Oleh Kiper confirmed that one person died and three others sustained injuries after strikes set five grain transport trucks ablaze and damaged three others. Russian strikes also hit Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia, leaving at least 11 people injured across central and southern Ukraine.

Cross-border strikes and frontline developments

Cross-border attacks also caused casualties inside Russian territory and Russian-occupied areas overnight. In the border region of Belgorod, acting governor Alexander Shuvayev stated that Ukrainian drone, artillery, and rocket fire killed three people and injured 14, while igniting a warehouse operated by retailer Ozon. In Russian-occupied Sevastopol in Crimea, occupation authorities reported one death, three injuries, and damage to roughly a dozen homes after shooting down 26 Ukrainian drones. Along the front lines, the Russian defence ministry stated its forces captured the settlement of Khrapivshchyna in Sumy region alongside Novoandriivka and Rubizhne in Donetsk region. At the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi stated that the facility remained without external power for over a week, relying on emergency diesel generators.