At least 7 explosions were heard this morning in the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, according to AFP journalists, while the whole country is on alert for Russian airstrikes.

Air defense systems in the vicinity of the Ukrainian capital were activated to repel a Russian drone strike, the Kyiv regional military command announced in the early hours of the morning.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on Telegram that there are power and water outages in parts of Kyiv following a major airstrike launched by Russian forces in the Ukrainian capital today.

According to AFP reporters, local officials reported airstrikes in several regions of the country, while at least 7 explosions were heard in the morning over the capital.

Ukraine’s largest private power company, DTEK, announced it had initiated emergency blackouts following the attacks.

Explosions in other areas too – Three dead

Channels on the messaging app Telegram also reported explosions in other parts of the country, mainly in the northwestern Ukrainian city of Lutsk, where officials said an attack damaged a residential building.

According to local officials, at least 3 people were killed by Russian shelling in Lutsk, Dnipro in the east and Zaporizhia in the south of the country.

The governors of Odesa and Zaporizhia, in the south, as well as that of Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, reported explosions in posts on the Telegram messaging app and called on residents to flee to safe places.

Earlier, five people were injured in an attack on an industrial facility in the central Poltava region, according to regional governor Filip Pronin.

At the same time, debris from drones launched by Ukraine and shot down in the airspace of Russia’s Saratov region damaged houses in the cities of Saratov and Engels, regional governor Roman Bushargin announced today via Telegram.

Emergency response services were developed and operating on the spot, he added. Near the city of Engels is a large Russian air force strategic bomber base, which Ukraine has tried to hit in the past since the war broke out in 2022.