Photo: Volodymyr Zelensky / Telegram

At least seven people have been killed in airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Monday morning, according to the head of the Kyiv region military administration Serhiy Popko, with Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reporting that pillars of smoke could be seen “from almost every district of the capital.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said that a medical facility in the capital was among the sites struck, and that medical crews had been dispatched to affected areas of the city. He urged residents to seek safety in air-raid shelters or to remain in their homes.

National broadcaster Suspilne said that the medical facility in question was the city’s biggest children’s hospital, Okhmatdyt, and that three people had been killed and nine were wounded when a missile hit the toxicology department.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Slovyansk and Kramatorsk had also come under fire as more than 40 rockets rained down on the cities in multi-pronged attacks.

He used the occasion to remind the international community that it must use all its determination to put an end to air strikes by “Russian terrorists”, saying that “only together can we bring true peace and security”.

The Ukrainian Air Force has warned that Russian rockets have been launched towards the central city of Dnipro and at the central Cherkasy region, where explosions were also heard.

Air raid warnings have been issued for the whole of Ukraine.

This story is being updated.