At least 27 people were killed in an overnight Russian drone strike on a warehouse in the Bucha district, just outside Ukraine’s capital, regional officials confirmed Saturday.
“Unfortunately, as things stand, 27 people are known to have died. And this figure may not be final,” Kyiv regional governor Tymur Tkachenko said. Among the dead was Taras Didych, mayor of the village of Dmytrivska.
According to authorities, the Russian drone struck a warehouse near Kyiv’s western suburbs that was storing munitions, triggering massive explosions. Tkachenko said at least 50 residential buildings were damaged in the attack, which ignited a large-scale fire that spread to nearby homes and a restaurant.
Ukrainian prosecutors said the warehouse appeared to have been storing “explosive objects” and have opened an investigation into criminal negligence. The probe will focus on “the legality of the storage of explosive objects and materials on the enterprise’s grounds,” as well as whether the unnamed company responsible held the “necessary permits and approvals.”
In a statement, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a warehouse had been struck in the village of Myla “followed by a detonation.” He confirmed criminal proceedings would follow. “There are regulations in place – ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas,” Zelenskyy said.
Kyiv’s regional governor reported on Telegram that 42 people were injured and more than 380 others were being evacuated from the strike area in the Bucha district.
Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi expressed frustration that lessons had not been learned after a similar deadly attack in July in Vyshneve, near Kyiv, on a munitions depot. That investigation revealed serious failings by a state-owned company that failed to comply with standards requiring ammunition to be stored well away from residential buildings.
“In the fifth year of the full-scale invasion, making the same mistakes over and over is criminal negligence,” Koretskyi said on Telegram. “Everyone responsible, without exception, must face severe punishment so that such situations never happen again.”
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched at least two missiles and 267 drones at Ukraine between late Friday and early Saturday.
In addition to the warehouse strike, Russian attacks early Saturday killed one person in the southern Odesa region and a 14-year-old girl in the Kyiv suburb of Boryspil, regional officials said.
In Russia, at least three people were killed and nine wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Belgorod region, local authorities said on Telegram. Three of the injured are in serious condition.
Another person was killed and three others injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russian-annexed Sevastopol, on the Crimean Peninsula, according to Mikhail Razvozhayev, the city’s Russian-appointed governor.
Russia and Ukraine have for several months been intensifying their long-range strikes, increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure such as logistics warehouses and oil and port facilities, with these attacks causing a growing number of civilian casualties.
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