Death toll reaches 38 after Russian strike on Kyiv ammunition depot as Ukraine probes why explosives were stored beside civilians
KYIV — The death toll from a Russian strike on an ammunition depot west of Kyiv rose to 38 on Sunday, making it the deadliest Russian attack in the Kyiv region this year and exposing a second danger beyond Moscow's intensifying aerial campaign: Ukraine's decision to store large quantities of military explosives close to civilian communities. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said four people remained missing and 20 were injured, including two children, as emergency crews continued clearing the devastated site near the village of Myla and neutralizing unexploded ordnance.
The attack late Friday struck a Ukrainian military facility containing artillery shells, mines, drones and other ammunition, according to Ukrainian officials. The initial strike triggered powerful secondary explosions and fires that spread beyond the depot into surrounding buildings and homes. Nearby civilian infrastructure suffered extensive damage, including a facility housing elderly people and people with disabilities, while hundreds of residents were evacuated as ammunition continued detonating and fires burned across the area.
The rising casualty count has turned the Myla strike into more than another episode in Russia's escalating bombardment. Zelenskyy publicly condemned what he called “terrible negligence” by those responsible for storing explosives next to civilians and said investigators would establish who authorized the arrangement and why. Ukrainian authorities have opened criminal proceedings, while the Defence Ministry has ordered a wider audit of ammunition-storage practices.
The distinction is important for understanding responsibility for the disaster. Russia carried out the strike, according to Ukrainian authorities, and the military depot was a wartime target. But the extraordinary civilian consequences were amplified when stored ammunition detonated after impact. Ukraine's own president is therefore treating the location and management of the stockpile as a separate accountability issue rather than attributing every consequence solely to the incoming Russian weapon.
The concern is heightened because Myla was not an isolated storage incident. Reuters reported that it was the second such disaster in the Kyiv area within two months, following a July strike in Vyshneve in which an ammunition site exploded, killing 10 people and damaging hundreds of homes. The recurrence has raised questions inside Ukraine over whether dispersed weapons stocks essential to sustaining the war are being positioned with sufficient distance and protection from civilian populations.
The Myla attack also came during a sharp escalation in Russia's air campaign around the capital. Kyiv has endured repeated drone waves and air-raid alerts over consecutive days, increasingly including daytime attacks that Ukrainian officials say are intended to stretch air defences and disrupt normal life. Zelenskyy said Russia launched nearly 2,000 strike drones, more than 1,600 guided aerial bombs and 31 missiles against Ukraine over the past week, including what he identified as North Korean ballistic missiles.
Moscow is now threatening a further escalation focused on the infrastructure Ukrainians will depend on during winter. Russia's Defence Ministry said Sunday that it was preparing “massive strikes” against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, describing them as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian and energy facilities. Kyiv has intensified long-range drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and other infrastructure that it says finances and supports Moscow's military campaign. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's electricity system during previous winters, making Sunday's announcement particularly consequential as colder weather approaches.
Ukraine, meanwhile, is continuing to strike deep inside Russia. Moscow's Defence Ministry said almost 500 Ukrainian drones were intercepted or neutralized overnight into Sunday. Russian and Ukrainian independent channels reported a fire at the major Kirishi oil refinery southeast of St. Petersburg, while the regional governor confirmed a fire in the city's industrial zone after drone interceptions without immediately establishing the full extent of damage. Claims from both sides about interceptions and individual military targets remain difficult to independently verify in real time.
The two developments illustrate how the aerial war is moving simultaneously deeper into both countries. Ukraine is trying to damage the Russian oil and industrial system supporting Moscow's invasion; Russia is combining attacks on Ukrainian military facilities with an increasingly persistent campaign against cities, logistics and energy infrastructure. The result is an expanding battlefield in which military targets can carry enormous civilian consequences when they sit close to populated areas.
For Myla, the immediate search is not over. Four people remained unaccounted for Sunday, meaning the toll could still change. Zelenskyy said most fires had been extinguished but contamination from explosives remained significant and emergency operations would continue as long as necessary. The destruction left rescuers working not simply through collapsed buildings but through an area contaminated by ammunition and potentially unexploded devices.
The strike therefore exposes two vulnerabilities at once. Russia demonstrated again that it can penetrate Ukrainian air defences and strike a sensitive military facility near the capital. But the subsequent explosions also exposed a vulnerability Ukraine can potentially address itself: where and how enormous quantities of ammunition are stored during a war in which Moscow is increasingly capable of finding and attacking targets far behind the front.