Oleg, a 57-year-old resident, said he heard a strange noise at around 9pm on Thursday.

He thought several helicopters were flying overhead until he saw the explosion.

Lyudmila, still in shock, assessed the damage in her flat where the blast had blown out the windows.

“Everything was blown away,” the 68-year-old said, her face bruised by the blast.

Kyiv and Moscow staged dozens of drone and missile attacks overnight, damaging a fuel reservoir site in a Russian border region.

The two sides have stepped up cross-border aerial assaults in recent weeks, with Kyiv targeting Russian energy facilities and Moscow launching retaliatory barrages.

Russia said it had downed 87 Ukrainian drones, of which 70 had targeted the southern Rostov region that houses the headquarters of its military operation against Ukraine.