BBC reporter ducks and abandons live broadcast from Kyiv as Russian missiles hit the city for first time in months

• Kyiv was hit by Russian missiles for the first time in months Monday.
• A BBC journalist was reporting live from the capital. He ducked and fled as the missiles fell.

A BBC reporter in Kyiv ducked and abandoned his broadcast as Russian missiles struck Ukraine's capital for the first time in months.

Hugo Bachega was reporting from Kyiv on Monday when the missiles hit as part of a Russian attack on multiple Ukrainian cities, many far from the front lines and which had long been considered relatively safe.

Kyiv's police said that at least five people were killed and 12 injured in the city.

Bachega was speaking live about the prospect that Russia could seek revenge for an explosion Saturday on the bridge that links Russia to Crimea, the Ukrainian region that it annexed in 2014.

Ukraine did not directly take credit for that attack, a major symbolic blow, but heavily hinted that it was responsible.

In the BBC broadcast explosions started as Bachega spoke, and he turned around to look at the city skyline before ducking his head and then leaving the frame.

No missiles or explosions could be seen in the video, which cut out and switched to the main BBC newsroom. The anchor explaine that Bachega was "for obvious reasons, taking cover at that point."

Bachega broadcasted again from Kyiv later Monday morning, from an enclosed space.

Russia originally tried to take Kyiv when it started its invasion in February. But it failed, instead and then instead focused it war in the east of Ukraine.

That left Kyiv in a period of relative normality until Monday's barrage of strikes, an apparent retaliation after the bridge attack in Crimea.

Russia also struck the cities of Dnipro, Lviv, and Zaporizhzhia, among others.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs, said on Twitter that a children's playground was hit in Kyiv.

Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the broader Kyiv region, said on Telegram on Monday morning that the attacks were continuing, and that people should stay in shelters.

Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine's defense minister, tweeted on Monday morning: "Our courage will never be destroyed by terrorist's missiles, even when they hit the heart of our capital."

"Nor will they shake the determination of our allies. The only thing they demolish irreversibly is the future of [Russia] - a future of a globally despised rogue terrorist state."