At least two strong explosions were heard in the early hours of Friday morning in the centre of Kiev, the day after the invasion of Russia in Ukraine, a journalist from the Agence France-Presse found.
Via Facebook, the Ukrainian ground army referred to «missile attacks» against the Ukrainian capital and assured that two of the missiles were intercepted and shot down.
He also uploaded a short amateur video showing an apartment building in flames.
The Mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, reported for his part that three people were injured, one seriously, by rocket fragments that fell in a district of the capital.
A photo uploaded by Mr. Klitschko shows firefighters at work in front of a building that has been damaged and is smoking.
The Ukrainian armed forces shot down a «Russian aircraft» in Kiev in the early hours of today, which crashed into a nine-storey apartment building, causing a fire, Anton Gerashchenko, the Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister, said. It is not clear whether it was a fighter or a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), nor whether it was referring to the missiles referred to by the army.
The advance of the Russian forces makes many fear that Kiev will soon be attacked and that attacks on strategic and government facilities in the capital will multiply.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitry Kuleba, spoke of «horrific blows» to Kiev by Russia, which he likened to those of Nazi Germany. «The last time our capital had experienced something like this was in 1941, when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one,» he said. He called for sanctions to be imposed on Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin and all countries to break their relations with Moscow and «kick the Russians out of everywhere». «Stop Putin. Isolate Russia,» he demanded.
On the first day of the invasion, the Antonov military airport in Gostomel, on Kiev's doorstep, was attacked by Russian forces flown in by helicopters, according to Ukrainian sources, who assured that the attack was repelled.
Earlier today the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, spoke of the presence of Russian «sabotage groups» in the Ukrainian capital, calling on its residents to be vigilant and to observe the night curfew imposed.
In addition to Kiev, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence also reported today that a missile bombing was carried out against a border guard post in the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhya and that there are «dead and wounded».
This region has no land border with Russia, but is bordered by the Sea of Azov.
President Zelenski, who declared martial law in principle for thirty days and cut off Kiev's diplomatic relations with Moscow, signed an order yesterday general conscription.
Air defence sirens sound in the city of Lviv
Air defence sirens began to sound early this morning in the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, a reporter for the international news agency Reuters reported.
Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine yesterday morning and the government in Kiev is claiming at least 137 people dead and hundreds injured so far. The capital, Kiev, suffered a missile attack at around 04:00 and a missile hit an airport in Rivne, another city in the western part of the country, according to its mayor.
