KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Explosions on Monday shook multiple cities in Ukraine, including rocket attacks on the capital Kiev for the first time in months, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin called a Saturday explosion on the massive bridge connecting Russia to its annexed territory of Crimea a “terrorist act”, devised by Ukrainian special services.
At least eight people were killed and 24 injured in just one of the attacks in Kiev, according to preliminary information, said Rostyslav Smirnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry.
According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, blasts have been reported in the Shevchenko district, a large area in central Kiev that includes the historic Old Town and several government buildings.
Lesia Vasylenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, posted a photo on Twitter showing at least one explosion near the main building of the Kiev National University in central Kiev.
After the first early morning strikes in Kiev, more loud explosions were heard later in the morning in an intensification of the Russian attack that could spell a major escalation in the war.
Elsewhere, Russia targeted civilian areas and energy infrastructure for four hours, while air raid sirens sounded in every region of Ukraine except Russia-annexed Crimea.
Associated Press journalists in downtown Dnipro saw the bodies of several dead in an industrial estate on the outskirts of the city. Windows in the area were shattered and there was glass on the street.
Ukrainian media also reported explosions in a number of other locations, including the western city of Lviv, a refuge for many fleeing fighting in the east, as well as Kharkiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr and Kropyvnytskyi.
Kharkiv was hit three times, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The strikes explained the electricity and water supply. Energy infrastructure was also affected in Lviv, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said.
The multiple attacks came hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to meet with his security council, as Moscow’s war in Ukraine nears its eight-month milestone and the Kremlin reels from humiliating battlefield setbacks in areas it is trying to protect. annex amid a Ukrainian counter-offensive in recent weeks.
A day earlier, Putin had called the attack on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea an act of terrorism carried out by Ukrainian special services. In a meeting with the chairman of the Russian Commission of Inquiry on Sunday, Putin said that “there is no doubt that it was an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critical civilian infrastructure.”
The Kerch Bridge is strategically important to Russia, as a military supply line to its forces in Ukraine, and symbolically as an emblem of its claims to Crimea. No one has claimed responsibility for damaging the 19-kilometer-long bridge, the longest in Europe.
Amid the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his Telegram account that Russia is “trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth”.
“Please don’t leave (bomb) shelters,” he wrote. “Let’s hold on and be strong.”
After the strikes in Kiev, several residents were seen on the street with blood on their clothes and hands. A young man in a blue coat sat on the floor while a medic wrapped a bandage around his head. A woman with a bandage on her head had blood all over the front of her blouse. Several cars were also damaged or completely destroyed.
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