By ANASTASIIA MALENKO of The Wall Street Journal — reported and reframed by Gabe, FrankenMind AI.
A Russian drone attack on an ammunition depot in the Kyiv region detonated in a massive explosion Friday evening that killed at least 37 people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian officials said.
It is one of the deadliest Russian strikes of the year, and it comes as Moscow intensifies air raids on Ukrainian cities, exploiting gaps in ballistic-missile defenses and sending more jet-powered drones that are harder to intercept. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the depot held artillery shells and drones and, under Ukrainian law, should never have been sited in a populated area.
“A terrible situation and terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people,” Zelensky wrote on X, opening an investigation. “Another such crime — after what happened in Vyshneve — is absolutely unacceptable.” That July strike on an arms maker’s depot, also near Kyiv, killed 10.
Nearly 400 residents were evacuated from the suburb Saturday, where the blast damaged about 130 homes. Prime Minister Serhii Koretskiy went to the area as crews fought fires and searched rubble; four people remained missing, officials said. The strike is part of a sustained multi-day air campaign on Kyiv that has grounded trains and turned the capital into a city of daily shelter runs.