Explosions Reported in Kyiv, Officials Say Russian Aircraft Downed

Overnight, explosions shook Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, with the country's adviser to the interior minister blaming the blasts on the downing of a Russian plane.

Around 3 am local time on Friday, explosions were reported in Kyiv. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister, said around 6 a.m. that the city had been subjected to "horrific Russian missile strikes."

“Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one. Stop Putin. Isolate Russia. Severe all ties. Kick Russia out of everywhere [sic],” he wrote.

Olexander Scherba, a Ukrainian diplomat who was the country’s ambassador to Austria 2014–2021, said on Twitter that at least “two heavy explosions” occurred in Kyiv and that cruise ballistic missile had hit the city. He later posted a video of an explosion in the sky, captioned: “Kyiv now… A drone or plane hit? A missile intercepted?”

On Telegram, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, reported that Ukraine's air force shot down a Russian jet or drone, which then crashed in the Darnitsky region. He said that this was the cause of the explosions witnessed in the skies above Kyiv.

It wasn't obvious if the plane was manned.

According to him, the explosion's debris caused a fire in a nine-story residential structure.

Scherba also used Twitter to share photographs of the alleged fire.

Since Russia initiated its assault on Ukraine, at least 137 people have died and 316 have been injured, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who spoke approximately two hours before the reported blasts in Kyiv.

Early Thursday, the invasion began with a series of missile attacks, many of which targeted major government and military targets, and was shortly followed by a three-pronged ground assault.

Russian forces were attacking Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, from the east, from Crimea's southern region, which Russia invaded in 2014, and from Belarus to the north, according to Ukrainian and US authorities.

After a tough struggle, Russian forces took control of the now-decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power station and its surrounding exclusion zone just hours after the invasion began.

While US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared late Thursday that Kyiv "might well be under siege," Zelensky said the administration received information that "subversive organisations" were converging on the city.