• Ukraine orders nationwide audit of weapons storage sites
• Three killed, nine injured in attack on Russia’s Belgorod region
• Moscow claims capture of three villages in Donetsk and Sumy

KYIV: At least 37 people were killed after a Russian drone attack on a Kyiv-area ammunition depot sparked a detonation, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday, vowing to punish suspected negligence in the second such incident in two months.

The attack late on Friday struck a military facility in the village of Myla, where artillery shells, mines and drones were being stored. Dozens of people were injured and hundreds were evacuated as fires and secondary explosions swept through the area.

Nearby homes and infrastructure were badly damaged, including a facility caring for elderly people and those with disabilities. Among those killed was the head of a neighbouring village, who had gone to the scene to help.

Zelensky described the incident as a “terrible situation” and blamed what he called serious negligence by those responsible for storing explosives close to civilians.

The blast was the second such incident in the Kyiv region in two months. Last month, 10 people were killed in Vyshneve after a Russian strike triggered explosions at another site, damaging hundreds of homes.

Zelensky said criminal proceedings had been opened over suspected official negligence. Ukraine’s defence ministry ordered those responsible for weapons storage to conduct a full audit of their facilities.

The attack came amid a third consecutive day of intense Russian aerial assaults on Kyiv and the surrounding region. Zelensky said nine other regions had been targeted overnight and described the capital as being under virtually continuous attack from jet-powered drones.

Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across Kyiv on Saturday as Ukrainian air defences responded to further waves of drones.

A 14-year-old girl was killed in a drone strike in the Boryspil district, according to the regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko. In Kyiv, a two-year-old girl was killed by a downed drone, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said.

On the battlefield, Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had captured Khrapivshchyna in Ukraine’s Sumy region, as well as Novoandriivka and Rubizhne in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine also carried out attacks inside Russian territory. Three people were killed and nine injured in Russia’s Belgorod region, where officials said an attack caused a fire at a warehouse belonging to the retailer Ozon.

In Crimea, a strike on Sevastopol killed one person, according to the city’s Moscow-installed governor.

Diplomatic attempts to bring the war to an end have meanwhile remained stalled. Russia continues to demand extensive territorial concessions from Ukraine, conditions Kyiv has rejected as amounting to capitulation.

The CIA director, John Ratcliffe, visited Moscow earlier this week against a backdrop of escalating attacks and continuing uncertainty over efforts led by the US to revive negotiations.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2026