At least 27 people were killed after a Russian drone strike triggered a massive fire and explosions on the western outskirts of Kyiv, local authorities said on Saturday, August 29. The incident was reported by AFP.
Following the attack, Kyiv prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into possible negligence, saying the warehouse that was targeted was believed to have been storing explosive materials. Officials did not provide further details about the nature of the facility.
Russia and Ukraine have intensified long-range attacks against each other in recent months, causing widespread fires and a record number of civilian casualties. After Friday night’s attack, AFP journalists saw huge clouds of black smoke rising over the western outskirts of the capital. Officials said the facility was still burning on Saturday.
Kyiv region Governor Tymur Tkachenko said the death toll had reached 27, although the number could rise as rescue operations continued. He added that Taras Didych, mayor of the village of Dmytrivska, was among those killed.
Ukraine’s prosecutors announced an investigation into the incident. The Office of the Prosecutor General said that at around 8:10 p.m. on August 28 (5:10 p.m. GMT), an unmanned aerial vehicle struck the grounds of a facility in Myla, a town on the western outskirts of Kyiv.
The prosecutor’s office said the strike triggered a massive fire and a series of explosions at the facility. Investigators will examine whether the storage of explosive materials and equipment at the site was lawful and whether the unnamed company had the necessary permits.
Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi expressed anger over the incident, saying that no “lessons” appeared to have been learned from a deadly attack on an ammunition depot in Vyshneve, near Kyiv, in July. An investigation into that incident reportedly uncovered serious failures at the state-owned company operating the facility, including violations of safety standards despite the presence of residential buildings nearby.
“Repeating the same mistakes in the fifth year of the full-scale invasion amounts to criminal negligence,” Koretskyi said in a post on Telegram. “Everyone responsible must face severe punishment to ensure that such incidents never happen again.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ammunition should not be stored near residential areas following the deadly attack on Kyiv’s outskirts.
“There are rules — ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas. Appropriate conclusions will certainly be drawn and lessons will be learned from this,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
