Missiles blew up Kiev overnight and air raid sirens sounded, raising fear among residents who did not flee the city of 3 million on Thursday that an attack was imminent. At times explosions and gunshots could also be heard.
A resident of southeast Kiev, who gave his name only as Sergei, said that he woke up around 4 a.m. and went to the balcony of his apartment to smoke.
He heard an explosion and saw a glow in the sky before him. Five seconds later an explosion shook their 10-storey residential building not far from Boryspil International Airport.
Ukrainian soldiers walk over the pieces of a downed plane seen in Kiev, Ukraine. (AP photo)
“There’s a piece of shell in my kitchen now. I was shocked,” he told Reuters. No one in his family was hurt.
A Reuters reporter noticed a two-metre-deep crater filled with rubble in the ground next to the building and shattered windows. A policeman present at the spot said that no one was killed but several people were badly injured.
a resident, Oksana GulenkoA military medic whose father fought for the Soviet Union in Afghanistan said she fell from the explosion about three meters from her bed.
“How can we live through it in our time? What should we think? (Russian President Vladimir, Putin He should be burned to hell with his entire family,” she said while cleaning the broken glass in her apartment.
Others removed the debris lying on the road.
Anatoly Marchenko, 57, who served in the Soviet Army, had to repair his balcony after the strike and could not find his cat, who fled during the shelling.
“I’m ashamed that I speak Russian,” she said and turned to Ukrainian. “I know the people there (in.) Russia), they are my friends. What do they want from me? There’s a war in my house and that’s it.”
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