"Grandma, We've Been Hit": Russian Strikes Rattle Kyiv

"The main thing is that people are alive," he said as he watched excavators try to clear the resulting mess of bricks, wooden planks and power lines.

Georgiy Yatsenko was hiding in the basement trying to comfort his anxious grandchildren on Thursday morning when an explosion rocked his normally sleepy street in southern Kyiv.

The blast blew out all his windows but the scene that greeted him when he stepped outside was even more frightening -- half a dozen houses almost completely destroyed by Russia's latest missile barrage targeting Ukraine.

"The main thing is that people are alive," he said as he watched excavators try to clear the resulting mess of bricks, wooden planks and power lines.

Ukrainian officials said air defence systems downed all 16 missiles that targeted Kyiv on Thursday -- part of a broader assault that also hit the second city Kharkiv in the east and the western city of Lviv on the border with Poland.