Strikes on "many" cities in Ukraine, says Presidency

KYIV: A series of loud explosions rocked Ukraine’s capital Kyiv early Monday morning, a day after Moscow blamed Ukraine for a deadly blast on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia.

Ukraine’s presidency said there were strikes on “many” cities in Ukraine.

“Ukraine is under missile attack. There is information about strikes in many cities of our country,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, said on social media, calling on the population to “stay in shelters”.

In Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, AFP reporters heard at least five blasts on Monday morning. A governor reported strikes hit Lviv in western Ukraine.

The explosions hit Kyiv around 8:15 am local time (0515 GMT), and an AFP journalist in the city saw numerous ambulances appearing to head towards the scene of the blasts.

“Several explosions in the Shevchenkivskyi district — in the centre of the capital,” Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on social media.

Videos posted on social media showed black smoke rising above several areas in the city.

Russia’s last strike on Kyiv took place on June 26.

The explosions came a day after Moscow blamed Ukraine for the explosion on a bridge linking Crimea to Russia, leaving three people dead.

“The authors, perpetrators and sponsors are the Ukrainian secret services,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said of Saturday’s Crimea bridge bombing, which he described as a “terrorist act”.

Putin was speaking during a meeting with the head of the investigation committee he has set up to look into the bombing, Russian news agencies reported.

The Russian leader is gearing up for a meeting with his Security Council later Monday, the Kremlin told local news agencies.

“Tomorrow the president has a planned meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The blast that hit the bridge sparked celebrations from Ukrainians and others on social media.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly address on Saturday, did not directly mention the incident, and officials in Kyiv have made no direct claim of responsibility.

On Saturday, Russia said some road and rail traffic had resumed over the strategic link, a symbol of the Kremlin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The 19-kilometre (12-mile) bridge is a vital supply link between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Zelensky meanwhile denounced a Russian missile strike on Sunday that killed at least 13 people, one of them a child, in Zaporizhzhia — the latest deadly bombardment of the southern Ukrainian city.

The attack also wounded 89 people, including 11 children, according to a statement from the president’s office.

Zelensky described the “merciless strikes on peaceful people” and residential buildings as “absolute evil” perpetrated by “savages and terrorists”.