Volodymyr Zelensky has blasted “terrible negligence” by Ukrainian officials after a Russian drone strike on a weapons depot near Kyiv killed 37 people.
The attack on the village of Myla on Friday night triggered secondary explosions as shells, mines and drones stored at the site detonated.
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Forty-two people were wounded, including four children, while nearly 400 residents were evacuated and around 130 homes damaged.
A nearby care home for elderly and disabled people was also hit by the blast.
Mr Zelensky condemned Russia for the attack but turned his fury on those responsible for storing explosives close to civilians.
The Ukrainian President said the weapons depot “definitely shouldn’t have been there”.
He added: “There was terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people.”
Criminal proceedings have now been launched over suspected official negligence.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office is investigating whether the positioning and storage of explosives close to homes in Myla was lawful.
Mr Zelensky said: “There are regulations in place – ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas.”
Russia’s defence ministry said it had struck “an ammunition depot” containing components and launch boosters for Ukrainian long-range drones.
Search and rescue operations continued in the Bucha district on Saturday.
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Liubov Pavlenko, 45, who lives around 200 metres from the depot, told the BBC her home had been left “completely damaged”.
Mrs Pavlenko said: “There are cracks all around the entire perimeter, and cracks around the windows. Basically, the structural integrity has been compromised.”
The disaster follows a similar incident in Vyshneve in July, when a strike on an ammunition warehouse triggered secondary explosions that killed nine people and damaged more than 280 homes.
An investigation into that explosion uncovered regulatory breaches involving the storage of munitions near populated areas.
Mr Zelensky said the Myla depot, unlike the facility in Vyshneve, had been operated by Ukraine’s armed forces.
Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky condemned the apparent failure to learn from the previous disaster.
Mr Koretsky said: “In the fifth year of the full-scale invasion, making the same mistakes over and over is criminal negligence.”
He added that “everyone responsible, without exception, must face severe punishment so that such situations never happen again”.
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