Explosions rock Kyiv, Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials say

Russia launched a missile strike on Kyiv and Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.

“Explosions in the city! Details later. Don’t leave the shelters!” Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, and the military administration of the region surrounding the capital said on their Telegram channels that air defence systems were engaged in repelling Russia’s missile attack.

“Strong explosions, our house … was shaking,” lawmaker Iryna Geraschenko said on her Telegram .

Reuters witnesses reported hearing several waves of explosions in Kyiv and around it.

Popko said several cars caught fire in the attack in Kyiv’s Sviatoshyn district, west of the capital’s centre.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, also writing on Telegram, said that Russia also targeted his city.

“They’re hitting Kharkiv again – there have already been several explosions,” he said.