The civilians of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities are reeling after being targeted by Russian missile strikes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says were deliberately timed to kill people.

Warning: This story contains images that some people may find distressing.

Cruise missiles tore into busy intersections, parks and tourist sites in the centre of downtown Kyiv on Monday morning, with an intensity unseen, even when Russian forces attempted to capture the capital early in the war.

Explosions were also reported in the towns of Lviv, Ternopil, Dnipro and Zhytomyr, far from the frontlines in the country's south and east.

Many of those towns have been largely free of conflict for months now, and the explosions — which killed at least eight and wounded at least 24 — appeared to target civilian infrastructure needed to provide power and water.

In Kyiv, the body of a man in jeans lay in a street at a major intersection after the first strikes, surrounded by flaming cars.

In a park, a soldier cut through the clothes of a woman who lay in the grass to try to treat her wounds. Two other women were bleeding nearby.

More volleys of missiles struck the capital again later in the morning, causing pedestrians to seek shelter in entrances to subway stations and inside parking garages.

Security camera footage posted online showed a cloud of shrapnel and flame engulfing a glass-bottomed footbridge across parkland in the city's centre, one of Kyiv's most popular tourist sites, and one person running away from the blast.

Kyiv's mayor, former boxer Vitali Klitschko, said the strikes also hit the city's Shevchenko district, which contains historic buildings as well as government offices.

There is speculation that the attacks, which occurred in broad daylight in full view of international media, are retaliation for Ukraine's likely involvement in the destruction of the Kerch Bridge, linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula.

ABC/Reuters