A Russian drone strike has killed 37 people and displaced nearly 400 others after it hit a depot storing weapons for the Ukrainian military. The depot was located near a residential area on the outskirts of the capital, Kiev.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the attack on Friday night involved shells, landmines and drones, causing a massive explosion and damaging nearby buildings. Among the buildings affected was a care center for the elderly and disabled.
Zelensky said the weapons depot “definitely should not have been here” and an investigation has been launched into “serious negligence” in storing explosives so close to people.
This is the second attack on an arms depot near Kiev in recent months, which has once again drawn outrage.
Regional head Timur Tkachenko said four children were among the 42 people injured in the blast on Friday night. Rescue operations were continuing at the scene in the Bucha district on Saturday.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces had hit an “arms depot” in the village of Mila, west of the Ukrainian capital, where parts and launch boosters for long-range unmanned aerial vehicles were stored.
The blast damaged about 130 houses in the village.
Local resident Lyubov Pavlenko, 45, told the BBC that her house was about 200 meters from the weapons depot and that she had come there to assess the damage. According to her, the entire exterior of the house and the windows were cracked, and the structural integrity of the building was affected.
Zelensky said that the decision to store explosives in the village was “absolutely unacceptable”. According to them, criminal proceedings have been initiated on charges of “official negligence”.
Share this content:
