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Warehouse strike near Kyiv
Russian forces struck a warehouse in the Bucha district, outside Kyiv, killing at least 27 people, Kyiv regional governor Tymur Tkachenko said on Saturday.
“At least 27 people have been killed after an overnight Russian attack on a warehouse in the Bucha district”
Tkachenko said the attack triggered a large-scale fire that spread to homes and a restaurant, and he named Taras Didych, mayor of the village of Dmytrivska, among the dead.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a warehouse in the village of Myla was struck “followed by a detonation,” and he confirmed criminal proceedings would follow.
Ukrainian prosecutors said they were opening an investigation into criminal negligence, focusing on “the legality of the storage of explosive objects and materials on the enterprise’s grounds.”
The strike came as Russia and Ukraine intensified long-range strikes, with the Ukrainian Air Force saying Russia launched at least two missiles and 267 drones between late Friday and early Saturday.
Evacuations, injuries, blame
Kyiv officials said the death toll could still rise, with Tkachenko writing that “this figure may not be final,” while he also said 42 people were injured and more than 380 others were being evacuated from the strike area in the Bucha district.
Al Jazeera reported that survivors described workers pounding on locked metal doors as smoke filled stairwells, but in Kyiv’s warehouse case the BBC said search and rescue operations were ongoing at the site in the Bucha district early on Saturday.
Zelenskyy said on X that “The regulations are clear: Ammunition must not be stored near houses or other residential buildings,” and he added that “Appropriate conclusions will certainly be drawn.”
The BBC reported that Ukraine’s prosecutor general said it was reviewing the “legality of the placement and storage of explosive objects and materials” near residential buildings, and that “the actions of officials who made the relevant decisions” would also be investigated.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces targeted “an ammunition depot” in Myla storing “components and launch boosters for FP-1/FP-2 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles,” a claim Ukrainian authorities did not confirm and AP could not verify.
What comes next
Ukraine’s authorities framed the warehouse strike as a test of compliance and accountability, with Zelenskyy saying criminal proceedings were opened on charges of official negligence and that “There are regulations in place – ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas.”
““There are regulations in place – ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas,””
The BBC said the prosecutor general’s office was investigating whether “Ammunition was being stored on site,” and it reported that Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed its forces targeted an ammunition depot in Myla.
AP reported that Russian drone bombardments over the Kyiv region reached more than a dozen apartment buildings and warehouses on the second consecutive day, and it said Russian strikes damaged 14 warehouses, 16 private homes, three apartment buildings, and 16 vehicles.
In the wider campaign, AP said Russian drone and missile strikes also target the power grid as part of an annual campaign to “turn winter into a weapon,” while Ukraine’s Center for Combating Disinformation head Andrii Kovalenko wrote that the objective is to “exhaust both air defenses and the population.”
As the investigation proceeds, the competing narratives remain central: Ukraine’s prosecutors focused on storage legality and permits, while Russia’s Defence Ministry said it struck an ammunition depot and stored components and boosters for FP-1/FP-2 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles.