News correspondents in Kyiv were interrupted by the sounds of explosions in or near the Ukrainian capital before dawn on Thursday – less than an hour after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a “military operation” in the country.
Reporting from a hotel rooftop in central Kyiv, CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance said he could hear loud booms in the distance.
“The United States has warned the Ukrainian authorities that it is possible that there could be strikes, airstrikes, missile attacks, ground attacks as well, on various places around the country, including on the capital,” Chance told CNN’s Don Lemon. “Now I don’t know whether that’s what we’re witnessing now, but it’s a remarkable coincidence that I’m hearing these explosions in Kyiv right now in the minutes after Vladimir Putin gave that speech.”
After several more booms, Chance stopped to put on a flak jacket and helmet.
The Ukrainian interior ministry said that rocket attacks had begun targeting Ukrainian fighter jets at an airport outside Kyiv, The New York Times reported. The country’s state emergency service reported attacks against 10 Ukrainian regions, primarily in the east and south. The government agency said several planes had been hit and information about shootings was coming in constantly, according to the Times.
Other reporters in Kyiv and also the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, also reported hearing explosions. Charlie D’Agata, a senior foreign correspondent for CBS, said he heard five explosions, followed by what sounded like a fighter jet overhead.
In ABC News’ feed, a series of explosions could be heard echoing throughout the dark city.
More than 150,000 Russian troops had amassed along Ukraine’s border in recent weeks, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had hours earlier implored his Russian counterpart to answer his call for peace.
“The people of Ukraine and the government of Ukraine want peace,” he said.