The death toll from a devastating Russian strike on a warehouse near Kyiv rose to 38 on Sunday, August 30, 2026, as Ukrainian officials confirmed the site served as an ammunition storage facility. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the placement of explosives near residences as criminal negligence, launching an ongoing criminal investigation.
Tragedy at the Myla Warehouse and the Human Toll in Bucha
The massive explosion and subsequent fires that swept through the village of Myla west of Kyiv on Friday night left 38 people dead and four others still missing, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Emergency workers spent the weekend extinguishing lingering fires and neutralizing unexploded ordinance at the site, where twenty people sustained injuries, including two children. Local administration officials in the Bucha district reported that at least 50 residential buildings suffered varying degrees of damage from the shockwaves and blazes.
Amid the wreckage, Ukrainian authorities confronted stark questions regarding safety protocols. President Zelenskyy described the incident as a terrible situation and pointed to terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people. Zelenskyy said in a statement that a criminal proceeding had been opened because Ukrainian law prohibits storing ammunition near civilian homes. Those who allowed this to happen must be held accountable for their decisions, he added.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President
Cleanup, rescue and firefighting operations are ongoing in the Bucha district — with emergency crews extinguishing fires, conducting search and rescue operations and inspecting buildings in the surrounding area, Tkachenko said.
Tragically, 34 of those killed were residents at the care facility,
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the local regional military administration, was cited by Ukrainian media as saying.
Another 20 people, including two children, were injured and at least 50 residential buildings were damaged, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the local regional military administration.
Russia continued its strikes on Kyiv after dozens were killed. A residential building in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district was reportedly struck by a drone on Saturday night, causing a fire to break out. At least 3 people were injured in a Russian drone strike on Kyiv late Saturday, as air raid alerts continued throughout the day.
Parallel Strikes, Regional Devastation, and Escalating Energy Threats
The weekend assault extended far beyond the Myla warehouse. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday it is preparing to launch massive strikes
against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, following a Ukrainian drone campaign against a retailer dubbed Russia’s Amazon
as well as the country’s oil and gas sector, which Kyiv says both funds and directly fuels Moscow’s invasion.
Diplomatic Maneuvers Amid Unrelenting Air Raids
Earlier this week, a C17 Globemaster descended into Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. Although it was hopping in from Riga, Latvia, the plane had originated at Andrews Air Force Base, close to Washington DC. On board was John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA. After being whisked into the Russian capital in a motorcade, a few hours later, Ratcliffe was up in the air again and on his way home.
Who Ratcliffe met was not clear. The visit had not been announced in advance in the US, while Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov claimed to have no knowledge or information about the arrival of a US Air Force plane.
The meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a diplomatic car crash. Your country is in big trouble. You're not winning,
Trump said, dressing down Zelenskyy in front of the world’s media. You don't have the cards.
The blowup in February 2025, three years into the war, was more than just a heated public exchange: The Ukrainian delegation was asked to leave the White House, and Washington briefly suspended intelligence sharing with Kyiv. In the ensuing months, as Russia made slow but steady gains on the battlefield, Trump warmly welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and seemed ready to push Ukraine into an unfavorable peace deal, including forcing it to give up territory.
