Russia launched a drone attack on an arms depot near Ukraine’s capital Kiev on Saturday. After the attack, shells, landmines and drones kept in the depot started exploding. The blasts caused heavy damage to nearby houses and other buildings. According to BBC report, at least 37 people have died in this incident. About 400 people were evacuated to safe places. After this attack which took place late on Friday night, relief and rescue work continued at the incident site on Saturday also. 42 people have been injured in the blasts, including four children. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that this weapons stockpile should not have been so close to a residential area. According to him, ammunition, landmines and drones were kept in the depot. Due to their explosion, many powerful explosions continued even after the initial attack. Zelensky said that this is serious negligence on the part of those who plant explosive materials right near people’s homes. He said that a criminal investigation has been started regarding the management of the depot. The arms depot was in Mila village near Kiev. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its army had targeted an arms depot in Mila village, located west of Kiev. According to Russia, parts of FP-1 and FP-2 long-range drones and the boosters that launch them were kept here. About 130 houses in the village were destroyed by the blasts. The house of 45-year-old local resident Lyubov Pavlenko is about 200 meters away from the weapons depot. Showing the damage to his house, he said that the entire outer walls were cracked and there were cracks around the windows as well. Zelensky said – The arms depot should not have been located here. Zelensky termed the decision to keep weapons in Mila village as wrong. He said that explosive material should not have been kept so close to people’s homes. He said that investigation has been started. We are finding out whether it was legal to allow weapons and explosives to be kept near residential buildings or not. The investigation will also look at the role of those officers who took decisions related to the deployment and maintenance of weapons. PM said – Even after 5 years, the same mistakes are being repeated. Last month in July, a similar incident had happened in Vishneve also. Nine people were killed and dozens were injured in that blast. More than 280 houses were damaged in this incident. The investigation into that incident revealed that a government company had not followed the rules related to keeping explosive material near residential buildings. Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky said that the lessons learned from the Vishnev incident were not implemented. He said that repeating the same mistakes again and again even after 5 years of the war is criminal negligence. He said that every person responsible for this, without any exception, should be punished severely, so that such incidents do not happen again. Ukraine lacks Patriot interceptor missiles. Russia has been continuously carrying out drone attacks on Kiev and surrounding areas for the last several days. Due to this, air raid sirens are ringing continuously in Kiev and air defense pressure on the Ukrainian Army has increased. Many Russian drones are powered by jet engines and can fly at a speed of about 400 miles per hour i.e. 640 kilometers per hour. Ukraine also has a severe shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles. These are included in its major air defense systems capable of stopping ballistic missiles. There is also a fear in Ukraine that the purpose of continuous drone attacks may be to weaken its air defense units, so that Russia can launch a major ballistic missile attack in the future. Air strikes increased in Russia-Ukraine Both Russia and Ukraine have intensified air strikes against each other in the last few months. Ukraine is now targeting Russia’s economic targets as well. Ukraine has been attacking targets associated with Russia’s largest online retail company Wildberries for the past several weeks. Ukraine claims that the company provides goods and parts to the army, while Russia denies this. Ukrainian attacks in the Belgorod and Rostov regions killed two people and injured 25 in the past 24 hours, according to local authorities in Russia. At the same time, according to the Moscow-appointed governor of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia, four people were injured in a Ukrainian attack on a shopping center.
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