A Russian drone strike on a warehouse on the western outskirts of Kyiv late on Friday killed at least 37 people, injured more than 40 others — including four children — and forced nearly 400 people to evacuate, making it the deadliest single attack of the war so far in 2026. The strike hit a depot in Myla, a village in the Bucha district west of the Ukrainian capital, triggering a massive fire and a chain of secondary explosions that could be seen from across the city. A large plume of black smoke rose over the western suburbs as emergency crews worked through the night and into Saturday. Among those killed were 34 residents of a nearby care home for the elderly and disabled, as well as the mayor of the neighbouring village of Dmitrivka. A 14-year-old child was killed in a separate drone attack in the Boryspil district, and a two-year-old died after a drone crashed in the Obolonskyi neighbourhood of Kyiv.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the warehouse appeared to have been storing military munitions — shells, mines and drones — and immediately ordered a criminal investigation into what he called "terrible negligence." Ukrainian law prohibits the storage of ammunition near residential areas, a regulation Zelensky said was clearly violated. "The decision to store explosives in the village was absolutely unacceptable," he said, noting that roughly 130 homes were damaged in the blast. Ukrainian prosecutors said their inquiry would examine the legality of the storage operation and whether the facility had the necessary permits. Russia's Defence Ministry confirmed the strike, saying its forces had targeted a depot holding components and launch boosters for long-range Ukrainian drones.
The attack drew sharp criticism from Ukrainian officials not only over Russian aggression but over what they described as repeated failures by their own side. Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi pointed to a July strike on Vyshneve, another Kyiv suburb, that killed nine people and damaged more than 280 homes after hitting an ammunition depot. That earlier investigation revealed that a state-owned company had flouted storage regulations. "In the fifth year of the full-scale invasion, making the same mistakes over and over is criminal negligence," Koretskyi wrote on Telegram. "Everyone responsible, without exception, must face severe punishment so that such situations never happen again." Zelensky said the Myla depot had been operated by Ukraine's armed forces.
The warehouse strike was part of a broader wave of Russian aerial attacks that have pounded Kyiv and surrounding regions for three consecutive days. Ukrainian air defences shot down 233 Russian drones overnight, military officials said, though the sheer volume of strikes has been straining those defences. Russia has significantly expanded its use of jet-powered drones, which are faster and harder to intercept than older models, according to Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office. Elsewhere, Russian strikes on the southern Kherson region — a partially occupied area along the Dnipro River — killed two people and wounded 27 others, including a child.
The Myla attack underscores the mounting toll on civilians as both sides escalate their long-range campaigns. Ukraine has stepped up drone strikes on Russian military industries, energy facilities and large commercial logistics networks — including repeated attacks on Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, which Kyiv describes as a military supplier. Zelensky said Ukraine aims to increase its long-range drone launches to 1,000 per day, up from a current average of over 300. The scale and frequency of attacks on both sides signal that the aerial dimension of the war is intensifying, with civilian populations on both sides bearing an increasingly heavy cost.