Shafaq News / An explosion was heard in Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, a Reuters correspondent reported, in one of a series of blasts which began after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine.

A Ukrainian interior ministry official said that military command centres in several cities including Kyiv have been targeted by missile strikes.

A resident of Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, the closest big city to the Russian border, said windows in apartment blocks were shaking from constant blasts.

Ukraine's military said it had destroyed four Russian tanks on a road near Kharkiv, killed 50 troops near a town in Luhansk region and downed six Russian warplanes in the east.

Russia denied reports its aircraft or armoured vehicles had been destroyed. Russian-backed separatists claimed to have downed two Ukrainian planes.

Source: Reuters