KIEV: According to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, a series of explosions hit Ukraine's largest airport Boryspil and several military objects in the eastern and southern regions of the country on Thursday, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a "special military operation" in the conflict-torn Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

According to reports citing media outlets, the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry stated it was evacuating passengers and workers from Boryspil. Reports add that attacks occurred in Kharkiv, a city in eastern Ukraine on the Russian border, Kramatorsk, a town on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, Vasylkiv, a city near Kiev, Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, and Odessa, a southern port city.

Putin said in a televised address on Thursday morning that he had decided to conduct a special military operation in response to a request from the heads of the Donbas Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk to protect the people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Ukrainian regime for eight years."

Russian President Vladimir Putin underlined that his country had no plans to "occupy Ukrainian territory."

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