Explosions rock Ukraine’s Kyiv, Kharkiv, air raid sirens nationwide

There were explosions this morning in Ukraine’s regions of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro; an air raid alert has been declared nationwide.

Oleksiy Kuleba, the Kyiv region governor, has urged residents not to ignore the sirens and seek shelter. He also added that air defence systems were working in the region.

Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, has also urged the city’s residents to stay in shelters. There are power outages in the city, various Ukrainian media report.

Oleh Synehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, was another official who called on locals not to leave shelters. Air defence systems were used in the region, too, as per preliminary data. Russia’s army executed three strikes upon the region’s critical infrastructure, causing no casualties.

Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, says a missile strike targeted an infrastructure facility, causing power outages. He later noted that the city had gone into a complete blackout.

Air defence systems were also reported working in the Poltava region, Dmytro Lunin, the local governor, says. The city of Poltava has been left with no electricity, says Oleksandr Mamay, the mayor. Heating is not working in Kremenchuk in the same region due to power outages; the local mayor Vitali Maletsky urges people to close their windows to prevent apartments from going cold before long.

Various Telegram channels also report air defence systems working in the region of Dnipro. Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor of Kryvyi Rih, reported two missile strikes upon the city.

Kyiv’s mayor Klitschko reported explosions in Kyiv on 14 December. He said Shahed kamikaze drones which Russia buys off Iran had been used in the attack.

An air raid alert was announced in the Zhytomyr, Vinnitsa, and Kyiv regions of Ukraine on the same day. Ukrainian media reported Kyiv residents hearing sounds of drones and explosions seeing several flashes.