JAKARTA - A massive explosion rocked the Ukrainian capital and other cities during peak hours on Monday morning, in Russia's revenge attack after President Vladimir Putin declared an explosion on the bridge into Crimea as a terrorist attack.
The attacks were the most intense that hit the Ukrainian capital since the early days of the war, sending residents fleeing to bomb shelters, while thick smoke rising into space.
The explosion was also reported to have occurred in Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr west of Ukraine and in Dnipro in central Ukraine.
At one of the busiest crossroads in Kyiv, a large crater exploded at the intersection. The car exploded, damaged buildings and emergency workers were at the scene. Two cars and a van near the crater were completely destroyed, blackened and pitted by shrapnel.
Windowss have been detonated from buildings at Taras University Shevchenko Kyiv. Meanwhile, National Guard troops with full combat equipment and carrying assault rifles lined up outside the educational union building.
"The capital is being attacked by Russian terrorists! The missile hit an object in the city center (in the Shevchenkivskyi district) and in the Solomyanskyi district. The airstrikes siren sounded, and therefore the threat continues," Mayor Kyiv Vitali Klitschko posted on social media.
"Central Kyiv roads have been blocked by law enforcement officers, rescue services are working," he continued.
A state emergency service spokesman said some were killed and injured, although they had not provided a definite death toll.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the explosion that damaged the only bridge over the Kerch Strait onto the Crimean peninsula was an "terrorism act aimed at destroying critical civilian infrastructure".
"This was designed, carried out and ordered by a Ukrainian special service," he said in a video on the Kremlin Telegram channel.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the explosion but has celebrated it. Senior Russian officials demanded a swift response from the Kremlin ahead of Putin's security council meeting on Monday.
The bridge is a major supply route for Russian troops in southern Ukraine and a symbol of Russia's control of Crimea, the peninsula it annexed after its troops seized it in 2014.
🔴 BREAKING : First photo of one of the explosion site in downtown #Kyiv. Burning cars, mutiple casualties reported ! pic.twitter.com/78lZ1eumHs
— Dali (@NHL__exe) October 10, 2022
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