An explosion in the southern city of Mykolaiv injured seven police officers on Monday, leaving two of them in a critical condition, authorities said.
The cause of the blast remains unknown, although President Volodymyr Zelensky described it as a “terrorist attack” in a post on Telegram – adding that the circumstances of the attack are “being clarified.
Ivan Vyhivskyi, Ukraine’s national police chief, said in a statement posted on Facebook that the attack had occurred at 6:10 p.m. (Kyiv time).
“Today at 18:10 in the city of Mykolaiv, an explosion occurred on the territory of a non-working gas station. As a result, seven employees of the Patrol Police Department, who came to work on a shift and parked their cars there, were injured. Two of them are in serious condition. Doctors are fighting for their lives,” Vyhivskyi said.
This incident follows reports of two blasts that killed a 23-year-old police officer and injured 25 more people in Ukraine’s western Lviv region on Sunday.
“The day before yesterday, a terrorist attack against police officers took place in Lviv. This is not a coincidence. The enemy is purposefully trying to kill Ukrainian police officers, who daily stand to protect the people and the state,” Vyhivskyi’s statement added.
“We regard these events as a targeted attack on the law and order system and destabilization of the situation within the country.”
Although drone and missile strikes are the most common cause of death and destruction in Ukraine’s cities, Ukraine’s intelligence services frequently report foiling terrorist attacks orchestrated by Russia.
In November 2025, for example, Ukraine’s State Security Service said it had foiled what it described as a “wave” of planned terrorist attacks on the capital city alone.