Multiple rounds of loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital throughout the early hours of the morning, AFP journalists reported, as residents took shelter in underground stations.
Daylight revealed rescue workers extinguishing fires and sifting through debris of heavily damaged buildings — houses, shopping centers, museums, theaters, schools and universities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier threatened retaliation for Ukrainian strikes in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine that killed 21 people in a vocational school.
In Kyiv, Sofia Melnychenko, 21, thought she was safe in the subway, “but then there were three loud explosions, and after the fourth one the ceiling in the metro started crumbling,” she told AFP.
“There was complete chaos. Children started screaming, people were panicking,” she added.
