Brutal Russian attack near kyiv: at least 37 dead in one of the deadliest blows of the year

The Friday night attack on the warehouse in Myla, a village in Bucha district, came on the second of three days of almost non-stop Russian attacks that have severely disrupted life in and around the Ukrainian capital. kyiv officials said a drone hit the building, although they did not specify whether it was one of the jet drones that Russia has increasingly been using to pierce Ukraine’s defenses.

The operation caused a fire in the Bucha district, west of kyiv, which spread to homes and damaged at least 50 residential buildings, explained Tymur Tkachenko, head of the local regional military administration. Local media later quoted him as saying that 34 of the deceased were residents of a home for seniors and people with disabilities. More than 370 people were evacuated.

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky described it as a “terrible situation” and said it appeared to be the result of “terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people.”

The attack on the warehouse was followed by a detonation, Zelensky said in a statement. He did not specify what was stored at the site, but noted that Ukrainian law prohibits storing ammunition near people’s homes and that criminal proceedings were opened.

“Those who allowed this to happen must be held accountable for their decisions,” Zelenskyy said.

The country’s Prime Minister, Serhii Koretskyi, also did not offer information about the warehouse hit, but referred to a July attack on the capital’s Vyshneve suburb, which hit an ammunition depot, killed 22 people and triggered large explosions and fires that destroyed nearby homes.

“Unfortunately, we can already see that the terrible tragedy in Vyshneve has not served as a lesson,” Koretskyi said. “In the fifth year of a large-scale invasion, making the same mistakes is criminal negligence. And all those guilty, without exception, must be severely punished so that situations like this do not happen again.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that it had hit a warehouse in Myla with components and launch accelerators for long-range drones. It also said it attacked the ports of Mykolaiv and Izmail, as well as a logistics center and warehouses where parts for the domestically produced Flamingo cruise missiles were stored in the kyiv region.

Drone attacks against the capital and, to a lesser extent, the rest of Ukraine have been almost constant since Thursday. kyiv officials say Russia is building up missile stockpiles and launching major strikes every few days, hoping to deplete Ukrainian defenses by sheer weight of numbers.

A Russian offensive against the southern region of Kherson on Saturday left two dead and 27 wounded, including a child, Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional administration, said in a statement.

Prokudin said earlier this week that Russia has intensified attacks against critical infrastructure in the region, where the Kremlin controls 70% of the territory. He also urged tens of thousands of residents to move to safer provinces amid the possibility of prolonged power and heating outages this winter.

Russia has significantly increased its use of jet drones, and their number will continue to grow as Moscow verifies their effectiveness, Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, told reporters on Friday.

“The means of attack always surpass the means of defense. We will certainly have to adapt. It will take time,” Palisa added. Interceptor drones now at Ukraine’s disposal, which could theoretically intercept jet drones, have not yet demonstrated the expected effectiveness, although Ukraine is working on solutions, he noted.

Meanwhile, in recent months Ukrainian forces have intensified their long-range attacks against Russian military industries and energy facilities. The attacks, which use locally made drones, aim to cut a source of income with which Moscow finances its war and make the Russian population feel the consequences.

In his evening address to the nation on Friday, Zelensky said kyiv hopes to increase its long-range strikes against Russia to up to 1,000 drone launches each day.

“Right now, we average over 300 of our long-range actions,” Zelensky said, his preferred term for kyiv’s long-range attacks that have lately also targeted large Russian online retailers. “There must be more. We have a very specific goal, and we will achieve it.”

Moscow’s forces destroyed 313 Ukrainian drones overnight, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, it said on Saturday.

Attacks with Ukrainian drones caused 11 injuries in the Russian region of Rostov, explained its governor, Yuri Slyusar. On social media, he noted that nine people were hospitalized, including four children.