Ukraine has said that 37 people were killed and over 40 others wounded in a Russian drone strike on a warehouse near the country's capital, Kiev..
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kiev Regional State Administration, initially reported on Saturday that 27 people were killed and 42 people, including four children, were wounded in an attack in the Bucha district of the Kiev region but did not specify where the attack took place.
However, later Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a depot that exploded in a Russian strike overnight was owned by the Ukrainian military and stored shells, drones, and other munitions.
"The first impact was on a place where ammunition was being stored that absolutely should not have been there, a depot of the Defence Forces. Detonation of shells, mines, other munitions, and drones. On a significant scale," Zelenskyy said in a video address.
The warehouse appeared to have been storing "explosive objects", Ukrainian prosecutors said, opening an investigation into criminal negligence.
Both Russia and Ukraine have intensified long-range strikes on each other in recent months, sparking fires and sending civilian casualties to record levels.
AFP reporters saw a huge column of black smoke pouring over the capital's western suburbs, as officials reported the facility was still on fire.
"Unfortunately, as things stand, 27 people are known to have died. And this figure may not be final," Kiev region governor Tymur Tkachenko said.
Among the dead was Taras Didych, mayor of the village of Dmytrivska, he added.
Ukrainian prosecutors announced an investigation.
"On 28 August at around 8:10 pm (1710 GMT), an unmanned aerial vehicle... fell on or struck the grounds of an enterprise in the town of Myla," the office of Ukraine's prosecutor general said.
Myla is a town on Kiev's western outskirts.
‘Lesson learned’
"A large-scale fire broke out on the enterprise's grounds, and detonation began," it added.
The prosecutor's office specified that its investigation would focus on "the legality of the... storage of explosive objects and materials on the enterprise's grounds", as well as whether the company, which was not named, had the "necessary permits and approvals".
Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky expressed regret that a "lesson" had not been learned after a previous deadly attack in July in Vyshneve, near Kiev, on a munitions depot.
That investigation revealed serious failings on the part of the state-owned company, which did not comply with standards despite the proximity of residential buildings.
"In the fifth year of the full-scale invasion, making the same mistakes over and over is criminal negligence," he said on Telegram.
"Everyone responsible, without exception, must face severe punishment so that such situations never happen again."
