Ukrainians again stored ammunition among civilians: 38 people killed in explosion (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,649)

Every day, the Ukraine Battlefield update newsletter offers a clear look at how the war is unfolding on the ground. Subscribe for free here to get the full text delivered to your inbox. Russia has changed tactics — Kyiv is under an almost continuous air-raid alert. A Russian drone struck a warehouse near Kyiv; a secondary explosion spread death. Heavy fighting continues near Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka and Dobropillia on the main axes. Russia’s bridgehead on the western bank of the Oskil has become slightly smaller again. Maps of the day — Dobropillia, Kostiantynivka, Oskil Videos of the day — air raids on Kyiv; a ground drone outmanoeuvres an FPV drone and survives an uneven fight; an air-defence system reveals its position and becomes a target; a Russian drone narrowly misses a Ukrainian helicopter. Russia has changed tactics — Kyiv is under an almost continuous air-raid alert. “Russia has been attacking the capital and Kyiv region with drones almost continuously since 27 August. Explosions again shook Kyiv during the night of 31 August,” Ukrainian website NV reported. This is not merely a figure of speech: Russia has indeed begun sending small groups of drones towards the city almost constantly, moving away from mass attacks launched at roughly the same time. Of course, Russia had previously carried out multiple attacks a day as well, but the latest change has had such an impact on life in the city that Ukrainian prime minister Serhiy Koretskyi announced plans to alter the curfew. Almost all of Ukraine is subject to a so-called commandant’s hour, during which people are officially prohibited from being on the streets. The closer one is to the front line, the earlier it begins. Following a meeting with the president, the prime minister announced that specific proposals were being prepared “to adapt the functioning of the state to the new conditions”. In theory, every establishment should halt work during every air raid and people should take shelter. In practice, this is far from the case everywhere, but if Kyiv faces 10 alerts in one day, as it did on Sunday, it must inevitably affect how the country functions. While the timing of the attacks changes constantly, Serhiy Beskrestnov, an expert in drone warfare and adviser to the defence ministry, pointed out an important detail that Russia barely changes at all. “With minor exceptions, all the hundreds of jet-powered Shahed drones fly to Kyiv along exactly this route. It might seem to make no sense. Why do they not fly via the shortest route, why not take different routes? What forces them to fly in this particular way?”, he asked in a post to which he attached this map: His conclusion was that the modems of Russian jet-powered drones use transmitters operated by Belarusian telecommunications providers to send and receive data. Russia began using the new tactic last Thursday. This video was also recorded then, when one of its drones crashed into parked cars in a housing estate. Kyiv has been under a nearly continuous and indiscriminate attack of Russian drones for three days now. Moscow is using the new variety of jet-engine drones that are harder to shoot down. This is how daily life looks. pic.twitter.com/16Dozy9tHu— JP Lindsley | Journalist (@JPLindsley) August 30, 2026 For now, only qualified good news came from Ukrainian analyst Bohdan Myroshnykov, who wrote on Sunday evening: “Many people probably noticed that fewer and fewer Russian jet-powered drones reached Kyiv yesterday evening — on Saturday — and during the day today. In some cases, the entire ‘salvo’ did not get through.” He said this was the result of countermeasures that had been taken, but also warned that Russia had already begun adapting its tactics. To illustrate what Kyiv looked like on Monday, here is an extract from the Ukrainian version of NV’s minute-by-minute coverage: 08.45. The air-raid alert in Kyiv has ended. 09.06. An alert was declared again in Kyiv. The Air Force warned of jet-powered drones approaching the capital from the east. 09.37. A fire broke out in warehouse premises in the Desnianskyi district of the capital. Emergency services are heading to the scene. 10.02. The alert in Kyiv has ended. 10.13. Kyiv is under alert again. The Air Force warned of a drone heading towards Kyiv. Radar reports drones heading towards Boryspil and Brovary. 10.18. The Kyiv Military Administration clarified that the warehouse fire had not occurred in the capital’s Desnianskyi district, but in the village of Pohreby, in the Brovary district of Kyiv region. 10.20. The alert in Kyiv and the region has ended. 11.44. Air-raid alert in Kyiv. The Air Force reported jet-powered drones heading towards the capital. 12.25. The alert in Kyiv has ended. 13.20. Six people were injured as a result of the Russian Federation’s attack on the capital on 31 August, most of them in the village of Pohreby. Three of those injured are in serious condition in city hospitals, mayor Vitali Klitschko reported. 13.37. An alert was declared again in Kyiv; a drone was near Boryspil. 13.43. The alert has ended. A Russian drone struck a warehouse near Kyiv; a secondary explosion spread death. The following video speaks louder than any words. A resident of the village of Mila, near Bucha in Kyiv region, filmed and survived a massive secondary explosion at an ammunition depot in a place where no such depot should have been located. The consequences were tragic: a large part of the village was severely damaged and dozens of residents were killed. The depot had earlier been struck by a Russian drone. 38 people were killed in the Russian strike and subsequent warehouse detonation in Myla, Bucha district, Zelensky says. Four more are still missing. Over this past week Russia fired nearly 2,000 drones, over 1,600 aerial bombs, and 31 missiles at Ukraine, including North Korean… https://t.co/pRYZDtYBGg pic.twitter.com/VQuEiYSW4O— WarTranslated (@wartranslated) August 30, 2026 This is the second such incident within a short period. The first occurred in July in Vyshneve, a suburb of Kyiv. “Seven killed. Twenty-one injured. More than 600 evacuated. Thirteen hectares of built-up area in ruins. These are not merely the consequences of another Russian missile strike. The investigation established that the scale of the tragedy was compounded by the negligence of specific individuals,” Ukrainian prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko said. Residents were confronted with an equally apocalyptic sight at the time. Зеленський заявив, що об’єкт у Вишневому, який уразили під час російського обстрілу, був складом боєприпасів «Укроборонпрому».Про це він сказав під час спілкування з журналістамиВідео: hromadske pic.twitter.com/EegOd0BzhP— hromadske (@HromadskeUA) July 9, 2026 At the time, Ukrainian authorities almost immediately acknowledged that the incident was the result of ammunition being stored in a populated area and arrested representatives of the private arms company that operated warehouses at the site. The same approach can now be expected. Ukraine’s SBU has already opened an investigation, and president Volodymyr Zelensky said that those responsible “must be held accountable for their decisions”. However, similar statements were made after the tragedy in Vyshneve in July, and, as can be seen, the incident has now been repeated on an even worse scale. Placing ammunition depots in such locations not only puts civilians at risk, but also violates the rules of warfare. This time, residents of the local care home paid the highest price. Of the 38 victims, 27 were residents of the home. Hromadske journalist Daryna Polishchevska described — when her report was published, 37 deaths had been confirmed — how she counted 27 black body bags containing the bodies of dead elderly residents and staff in the courtyard of the destroyed facility. Residents of Mila were still describing on Sunday how explosions continued even two days after the blast. “The ammunition is still exploding. It is scattered everywhere — huge rockets, shells, cartridges,” said Zhanna, a local resident whose house stands directly opposite the care home. Heavy fighting continues near Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka and Dobropillia on the main axes. “Our FABs — glide bombs — are also operating on the Druzhkivka axis, destroying urban development. Heavy fighting is under way on the approaches to the city.” “In Dobropillia, the Russian Armed Forces are conducting an offensive in built-up areas while cutting off the enemy’s logistics through drone and artillery strikes.” The preceding quotations are from the morning report of the Russian Telegram channel Two Majors. In the first case, the interpretation is straightforward: the authors wrote nothing about an advance, only about heavy fighting. In the second, they mentioned Dobropillia but did not specify which one — the town of Dobropillia or the village of the same name 2.5 kms to the south. The local information channel Dobropillia Info reported that Russian forces were trying to establish a foothold in the eastern part of the smaller settlement, which their soldiers regularly penetrate, but allegedly without any lasting success so far. According to the same source, the Russian army’s forward positions are east of the town and in the area around the village of Hannivka, which lies directly on its north-eastern outskirts. The Ukrainian analytical channel Petrenko published its latest map, showing the village of Dobropillia without a Russian presence. Had the map been larger, the town itself would have been just beyond its upper edge. Russia’s bridgehead on the western bank of the Oskil has become slightly smaller again. This is according to DeepStateUA analysts, who said Russian forces had been pushed out of a two-square-km area south of the village of Zapadne. On the map below, this is the lower blue area. The one above it is the result of a successful operation last week, when members of the 23rd Separate Assault Regiment advanced north of Zapadne, near the much larger Dvorichna. DeepStateUA wrote that the advance was again due to the 23rd Regiment, part of which is made up of soldiers from Colombia. Russia’s Two Majors Z-channel wrote of “meeting engagements near the village of Zapadne”. Its major advantage is superiority in air power. The Russian authors claimed that, in this case too, glide bombs were being used to bombard the area immediately behind the forward positions of the 23rd Regiment, in order to cut them off from the unit’s rear areas and isolate the soldiers on the front line. The smaller-scale map provides an overview of the importance of this sector. For Russia, its bridgehead is important as a base for an attack on Kupiansk to the south, as well as a staging ground for the planned cutting-off of the north-eastern part of Kharkiv region in the direction of Vovchansk. Videos of the day The operator of a Ukrainian ground drone managed to evade two attacks by a Russian FPV drone. A Russian air-defence system fired a missile at one of the drones, revealing its position to another. Russian footage captured the moment an air defense position fired a missile at a Ukrainian FP-2 deep-strike drone, exposing its location.Moments later, the drone struck that Russian air defense position. pic.twitter.com/Yf4SPHCip8— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 28, 2026 The crew of a Ukrainian helicopter were saved from death by mere decimetres. By turning left at the last moment, the pilot avoided a drone flying directly towards them. What are the losses By Monday (31 August), Russia had verifiably lost 24,052 pieces of heavy equipment, compared with 24,035 on Tuesday (25 August). Of these, Ukrainians destroyed 19,020 (19,005), 1,000 (999) were damaged, crews abandoned 1,194 (1,193), and the Ukrainian army captured 2,838 (2,838). This includes 4,443 (4,440) tanks, of which 3,348 (3,346) were destroyed in combat. Ukraine lost 12,052 (12,018) pieces of equipment, of which 9,462 (9,429) were destroyed, 697 (697) damaged, 694 (694) abandoned and 1,199 (1,198) captured. This includes 1,460 (1,456) tanks, of which 1,121 (1,117) were destroyed in combat. Note: Neither side regularly reports its own dead or destroyed equipment. Ukraine publishes daily figures for Russian casualties and destroyed equipment, which cannot be independently verified. This overview uses data from the Oryx project, which has compiled a list of equipment losses documented exclusively through photographs since the start of the war.