By Dan Peleschuk
KYIV, Aug 29 (Reuters) – At least 37 people were killed after a Russian drone attack on a Kyiv-area ammunition depot sparked a detonation, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday, vowing to punish suspected negligence in the second such incident in two months.
The deadliest Russian strike in the Kyiv area this year came as Moscow’s air attacks on the Ukrainian capital and surrounding region dragged into a third straight day, killing residents, damaging homes and derailing daily life.
Dozens were also injured and hundreds evacuated from the area of the strike late on Friday on the village of Myla, Zelenskiy said, where nearby infrastructure including residential buildings and a facility for the elderly and people with disabilities suffered “significant damage”.
The attack sparked widespread fires, officials said. Among those killed was the head of a neighbouring village who rushed to help.
“A terrible situation and terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.
SECOND STRIKE-RELATED DETONATION IN TWO MONTHS
The site of Friday’s blast was a military facility that held artillery shells, mines and drones, among other ammunition, he added.
It followed a similar incident in the Kyiv-area town of Vyshneve last month, when 10 people were killed and hundreds of houses damaged after a strike triggered secondary explosions.
“Another such crime – after what happened in Vyshneve – is absolutely unacceptable,” Zelenskiy said. “I expect the details to be presented to the public promptly.”
He added that criminal cases had already been opened on charges of official negligence. Ukrainian officials rarely disclose damage to military targets from Russian attacks.
In a statement on Saturday, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said all those responsible for weapons storage should complete a full audit of their locations.
DRONE SWARMS GRIP KYIV FOR DAYS
Nine other regions had been targeted in overnight strikes by Russia, Zelenskiy added, saying Kyiv in particular was under “virtually non-stop attack” from jet-powered drones.
Russia has escalated its air war on Ukraine with increasing numbers of elusive ballistic missiles and new high-speed drones, which Kyiv lacks the air defences to shoot down.
On Saturday, sirens blared throughout the morning and afternoon for a third straight day as Ukraine’s air force warned of new waves of drones approaching the capital.
The sound of air defences boomed across the sky.
Kyiv region governor Tymur Tkachenko said a 14-year-old girl was killed in a morning drone strike on the Boryspil district. In Kyiv, a 2-year-old girl was killed by a downed drone, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Saturday.
Strikes in and around the city on Thursday and Friday had damaged residential buildings and storage facilities belonging to major retailers, part of what some Ukrainian officials said was a campaign aimed at “paralysing” the city of several million.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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