Russian strike on Bucha Raion kills 37 and triggers official negligence probe

Strike on Myla warehouse and secondary explosions

Russian forces attacked Bucha Raion in Kyiv Oblast overnight from Friday, 28 August, to Saturday, 29 August, striking the warehouse premises of an enterprise in the village of Myla near Bucha. Ukrainian media outlets, including the NV news portal and Ukrainska Pravda, reported that the commercial storage facility was housing ammunition. The strike ignited an intense fire on Friday late evening, which triggered sustained secondary detonations that lasted for several hours across the surrounding area. The explosive blasts caused structural destruction to adjacent civilian infrastructure, heavily damaging a local care home as well as several private residential houses. Emergency crews, police officers, and technical personnel responded to combat the blaze, while transport authorities closed a section of the vital M-06 Kyiv-Chop highway to facilitate rescue access and secure public safety.

Casualty toll and Bucha Raion evacuations

The strikes and secondary explosions killed at least 37 people and injured 42 others in Bucha Raion, according to casualty reports released on Telegram by Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv Oblast administration. Early on Saturday morning, official counts placed the death toll at 27 before rescue teams uncovered additional bodies while clearing debris. Tkachenko warned during initial operations that the casualty count would climb as emergency crews reached collapsed buildings. Among the 42 wounded civilians were at least four children, while local officials confirmed that Taras Didych, the head of the Dmytrivka hromada, was killed in the attack. First responders evacuated approximately 400 residents from the impacted sector of Bucha Raion as firefighting and search operations continued throughout Saturday.

Negligence inquiry and government reaction

Following confirmation of explosions at the site, the Prosecutor General's Office initiated a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the blast at the commercial property. Prosecutors opened an inquiry into potential official negligence by Kyiv Oblast civil servants responsible for oversight. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the incident on Saturday, stressing that state regulations explicitly forbid housing munition supplies adjacent to residential areas and promising swift accountability.

Clear rules apply: ammunition must not be located near homes or other residential buildings. Consequences will certainly be drawn.

State investigators are examining how explosive materials were positioned on the enterprise grounds and whether municipal authorities failed to enforce safety mandates designed to protect civilian populations from military risks.

Overnight attacks across ten regions

The attack on Kyiv Oblast occurred as Russian armed forces carried out strikes across 10 of Ukraine's 24 oblasts overnight, targeting Odesa Oblast in the south, Sumy Oblast in the northeast, and Kherson Oblast in the southeast. In Kherson city, Russian drone strikes killed one person and wounded three others, with unmanned aerial vehicles striking multiple civilian locations including a medical facility. Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Oblast Military Administration, reported that Russian forces deployed kamikaze drones and FPV drones across the urban area. Kherson has faced continuous aerial and artillery bombardment since Ukrainian forces liberated the city from Russian occupation in late 2022. Regional authorities reiterated that Russian military operators conduct systematic civilian targeting with FPV drones, describing the practice as deliberate human safaris in front-line neighborhoods.