Live: Blasts heard in Kyiv and Lviv, as Russia renews attack on capital

Issued on: 16/04/2022 – 07:05

06:54 am: Missile factory attacked in Kyiv produced weapons that sank Russian warship, says Ukraine

Russia pounded a Ukrainian rocket factory following the sinking of its Black Sea flagship, as President Volodymyr Zelensky said his allies could shorten the war by delivering the weapons he had requested.

The Vizar factory, near Kyiv’s international airport, was seriously damaged in the overnight strikes, an AFP journalist saw on Friday.

Russia said it had used sea-based long-range missiles to hit the plant, which Ukraine’s state weapons manufacturer says produced Neptune cruise missiles — the projectiles both Kyiv and Washington say were used to sink the Moskva warship. 

“There were five hits. My employee was in the office and got thrown off his feet by the blast,” Andrei Sizov, the 47-year-old owner of a nearby wood workshop, told AFP.

“They are making us pay for destroying the Moskva,” he said.

06:03 am: Explosions heard in Kyiv and Lviv, says local media

Explosions were heard in the early hours on Saturday in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western city of Lviv, local media reported.

Air raid sirens were going off over most of Ukraine early on Saturday.

There has been no official confirmation of the explosions.