Explosions hit several cities in Ukraine

The capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, has been rocked by enormous explosions that seem to have been caused by missile strikes.

After several months of very peaceful conditions in Kiev, the attack took place early on Monday. According to reports, it is the worst there has been since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Other cities including Lviv, Ternopil, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, and Zaporizhzhia have also reported hearing explosions.

According to Reuters, the explosion damaged one of Kyiv's busiest road intersections, and certain areas of the city saw the destruction of both cars and buildings.

Days before the assault, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of assaulting the only bridge between the annexation of Crimea and Russia.

“This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services,” Putin had said.

Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, in a tweet on Monday, said his country’s “courage will never be destroyed by terrorist’s missiles, even when they hit the heart of our capital”.

China has requested that the Ukrainian issue be de-escalated in response to pleas for peace from the international community.

“We hope the situation will deescalate soon,” Mao Ning, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Monday.

Putin had ordered the mobilisation of troops for Ukraine earlier in September and had also called up an additional 300,000 reservists.

He further implied that if the West continued to "intervene," there would be a nuclear reprisal.

Putin had stated that his objectives were to "demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine," as well as to defend those who had been subjected to what he called the Ukrainian government's eight years of bullying and genocide. He also added that the war would not end until his objectives were achieved.

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