Ukraine has arrested Ruslan Kuchynskyi, the head of an enterprise in Vyshneve in Kyiv Oblast, suspected of involvement in the improper storage of ammunition at warehouses near civilian settlements, UNIAN reports. A Kyiv court is choosing a pre-trial restraint for him after a Russian attack triggered a massive detonation that damaged 13 hectares of residential development.
The 6 July strike killed 11 people in Kyiv itself and drove the citywide toll to 19. In Vyshneve, the secondary detonation burned for hours, and more than 600 residents were evacuated over the risk of further explosions.
Kuchynskyi is the first individual to face a court over the depot. The case will be heard behind closed doors because state-secret material will be disclosed, the prosecutor requested it, and the suspect's lawyer did not object. The remaining suspects will likely also have their restraint hearings held in closed session.
Russia fired missile, but depot should not have been there
Former Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko called it the largest destruction of the residential sector in the entire full-scale war.
Earlier, SBU Deputy Head Major General Oleksandr Poklad reported to Zelenskyy on who inside Ukroboronprom allowed the storage, and Zelenskyy said on 11 July that the directors of two state enterprises had acted in defiance of both the law and a decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff.
Russia launched the strike, but the depot's location is what turned it into a neighborhood-leveling event.
"There was a direct ban on this, both under the law and under the Staff's decision, and all of it was violated," Zelenskyy said on 11 July.
He said the specific officials are known, and the state's position is that each of them must be brought to fair justice.
"Every director must feel that people's lives depend on his decisions or his inaction," Zelenskyy stated.
General Staff spokesman Dmytro Lykhovii has confirmed the Commander-in-Chief's order banning the siting of ammunition depots near civilian buildings remains in force, per Euromaidan Press.
Case sits amid defense-industry reckoning
Kuchynskyi's hearing lands in the middle of a wider shake-up of Ukraine's defense-industrial leadership. Ukroboronprom chief Herman Smetanin resigned on 15 July, days after the Vyshneve tragedy, and Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov confirmed his own departure the same day.
Ukroboronprom, also known as the Ukrainian Defense Industry, groups roughly 100 enterprises that produce missiles, drones, armored vehicles, and ammunition.
