Death toll rises to 38 after Russian strike on Ukrainian warehouse
The death toll from a Russian strike on a Ukrainian warehouse serving as an ammunition depot has risen to 38, making it the deadliest single strike in years. The Friday strike hit a warehouse located in a residential area west of Kyiv in the Bucha district, setting off a colossal explosion. Nearly two days later, […]
The death toll from a Russian strike on a Ukrainian warehouse serving as an ammunition depot has risen to 38, making it the deadliest single strike in years.
The Friday strike hit a warehouse located in a residential area west of Kyiv in the Bucha district, setting off a colossal explosion. Nearly two days later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said first responders were still putting out the flames.
” data-large-file=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/death-toll-rises-to-38-after-russian-strike-on-ukrainian-warehouse.webp” src=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/death-toll-rises-to-38-after-russian-strike-on-ukrainian-warehouse.webp” alt=”Ukraine warehouse” class=”wp-image-4705517″ srcset=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/death-toll-rises-to-38-after-russian-strike-on-ukrainian-warehouse-1.webp 1024w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/death-toll-rises-to-38-after-russian-strike-on-ukrainian-warehouse-1.webp?resize=300,200 300w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/death-toll-rises-to-38-after-russian-strike-on-ukrainian-warehouse-1.webp?resize=768,511 768w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/death-toll-rises-to-38-after-russian-strike-on-ukrainian-warehouse-1.webp?resize=150,100 150w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/death-toll-rises-to-38-after-russian-strike-on-ukrainian-warehouse-1.webp?resize=696,463 696w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”>A view of the destruction after a Russian attack struck a warehouse, followed by an explosion, in the village of Myla, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
On Saturday, Zelensky said the warehouse was improperly being used as an ammunition depot and that an investigation had been opened into the “terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people.”
“I expect the details to be presented to the public promptly. The first strike was on an ammunition storage site that definitely shouldn’t have been there — a Defense Forces storage facility. Shells, mines, other ammunition, and drones detonated. The scale is significant,” he said.
Such a high death toll from a single strike hasn’t been seen since the opening months of the war. While often launching dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones in single salvos, hitting Ukraine’s major cities, the death toll from the large quantity of munitions has almost always been in the single digits.
The death toll from each round of strikes has been higher than normal over the past two months, both due to Ukraine running out of interceptor ammunition and to Russia easing its restrictions on targets in retaliation for Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign targeting its own energy infrastructure and retail warehouses.
Zelensky announced on Sunday that Russia had fired nearly 2,000 drones, over 1,600 aerial bombs, and 31 missiles at Ukraine over the past week alone.
The past two months of the air war have been some of the worst for Ukraine of the entire war. While the biggest culprit has been interceptor shortages related to the war with Iran, analysts have also cast blame on political decision-making from Kyiv, whose decision to greatly expand its long-range drone campaign to include civilian warehouses led to Russia expanding its own target list.
Ukraine has been almost entirely cut off from the Black Sea after Moscow began hunting ships in and around the crucial port city of Odesa, and most of its warehouse storage space has been wiped out. Taras Vysotskyi, Ukraine’s minister of agrarian policy and food, revealed over the weekend that Russian attacks have destroyed around 90% of Ukraine’s modern storage facilities for goods. Shortages in grocery stores have become increasingly common.
