Explosion of ammunition at depots in Vyshneve: CEO of defence company and his deputy have been detained, - Kravchenko. VIDEO
The chief executive of a defence sector company and his deputy have been detained under Article 615 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine. They have been notified that they are suspected of professional negligence, which led to the tragedy in Vyshneve, Kyiv Oblast.
This was announced by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, as reported by Censor.NET.
Explosion of ammunition
He recalled that on the night of 6 July 2026, the Russian Armed Forces launched a missile strike on the Kyiv region. A 9M723 ballistic missile from the Iskander system struck the company’s depot in Vyshneve. Following the strike, a large-scale secondary detonation of ammunition began, which lasted for hours.
"Seven dead. Twenty-nine injured. Over 600 evacuated. Thirteen hectares of residential buildings in ruins. These are not merely the consequences of yet another Russian missile strike. According to the investigation, the scale of the tragedy was exacerbated by the professional negligence of specific individuals in the rear," Kravchenko noted.
What the investigation has established
- It has been established that a significant quantity of ammunition was stored in premises that categorically failed to meet safety requirements and lacked the necessary permits. The depot was not designated for such storage, let alone long-term storage.
- The location of such facilities near civilian buildings is expressly prohibited by legislation, government resolutions and decisions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s Headquarters. These requirements were ignored. The distance from the facility’s perimeter fence to the nearest buildings was approximately 24 metres, and to one of the private houses – less than 18 metres.
- The Prosecutor General emphasised that the Russian missile was the root cause, but the scale of the subsequent explosion and its consequences were determined precisely by the disregard for basic rules on ammunition storage and public safety. The officials responsible for these decisions could not have been unaware of the risks.
Arrest
Today, the chief executive of the defence sector company and his deputy were detained in accordance with Article 615 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine. They have been notified of suspicion of professional negligence resulting in serious consequences and loss of life (Parts 2 and 3 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), and have been served with a motion for the imposition of preventive measures in the form of mandatory pre-trial detention. Both officials have been dismissed from their posts.
Kravchenko noted that these are the first procedural decisions in this criminal investigation. The investigation must establish the entire chain of decisions: who authorised the storage of ammunition in this specific area, who was responsible for its safe storage, who was supposed to carry out supervision, and why these violations were not prevented.
A separate investigation is also looking into the possibility of Russian intelligence influence and a leak of information regarding the ammunition’s storage location to the benefit of the aggressor state.
The investigation is ongoing.
What led up to this?
- As previously reported by Censor.NET, a massive Russian attack on Vyshneve on 6 July damaged over 200 properties, including more than 100 residential buildings and seven railway workers’ hostels. Nine people were killed, a further 48 were injured, and around 300 families were left without a gas supply.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later stated that the facility in Vyshneve, which was hit during the Russian strike on 6 July, was an ammunition depot belonging to one of Ukroboronprom’s enterprises.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) had identified the specific managers of the ‘Ukroboronprom’ enterprises who had located the ammunition depot in Vyshneve.
