A Russian ballistic missile strike, 24 July, killed 10 and injured 100 people at an arms exhibition near Kyiv showcasing drone technology. President  Zelenskyy said the defence industry event should not have taken place.

Zelenskyy said in a TV address following the attack: “We have said a thousand ​times that under these wartime conditions, with such ‌an enemy, it is absolutely unacceptable ‌to hold any weapons exhibitions with large crowds of people, especially near residential buildings.”

The missile strike hit the venue, a privately owned sports complex in the Bucha district of Kyiv region.

The event was reportedly a closed-door defence tech exhibition, named ‘Defence Demo Day & Defence Expo Critically Protected’ and was organised by the ARMADA association. The exhibition was reportedly advertised on social media, with the time and date public information. Ukraine’s prosecutor-general is leading efforts to establish who decided to hold the event and what safety measures were in place.

The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the attack on what it said was a site where drones for use in targeting civil sites in Russia were being demonstrated.

The attack came hours after Ukrainian strikes on a factory in the city of Kirov and warehouses in north-west Russia and following months of drone attacks on oil depots and refineries.

The Kyiv incident wan’t the first case of an attack on an exhibition centre in Ukraine. In August 2023 a Russian missile hit the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre while it was hosting a gathering of drone manufacturers.