At least 37 people were killed in a Russian drone strike targeting an ammunition depot near Kyiv on Friday night, marking the third consecutive day of attacks on the Ukrainian capital. The strike hit a warehouse located in the village of Myla, situated in the Bucha district on the outskirts of Kyiv, where military weapons and explosives were stored close to residential areas.
The attack caused a large fire and a series of explosions, leading to the destruction of around 50 residential buildings and forcing the evacuation of more than 200 local residents, with some reports indicating as many as 400 people were relocated from the area. Among the injured were 42 people, including four children.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the incident and announced an official investigation into the circumstances surrounding the storage of explosives near populated areas. He described the situation as a case of "terrible negligence" and indicated that criminal proceedings had been initiated on charges of official negligence. Zelenskyy emphasized that storing ammunition in close proximity to homes is prohibited under Ukrainian law.
The Russian government claimed responsibility for the strike, stating that the warehouse in Myla held launch boosters and long-range drones. In addition to the attack near Kyiv, Russian forces reported carrying out strikes in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the southwestern city of Izmail, as well as targeting a logistics center and a weapons warehouse in the Kyiv region allegedly storing components for Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missiles.
Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly in Kyiv over the course of 24 hours, alerting residents to ongoing drone and missile threats. The attacks underscore the continued intensity of hostilities in and around Ukraine’s capital amid the wider conflict with Russia, which shows no immediate signs of abating. Both Ukrainian officials and Russian authorities have framed the strikes as targeting military infrastructure, though the presence of civilian casualties has raised concerns over the proximity of such facilities to populated areas.