Newshub Europe correspondent Lisette Reymer was forced into an underground bomb shelter in Ukraine moments before an AM interview on Thursday (NZ time) as Russia continues its latest assault on the eastern-European country.
Russia has been pelting Ukraine with more than 100 missiles over the past few days, which has killed at least 26 people across the country this week.
It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered what he called retaliatory strikes against Ukraine for an explosion on a Crimean bridge.
Air raid sirens sounded across large parts of Ukraine for a third day on Wednesday and there were reports of some shelling, but no sign of a repeat of the intensive countrywide strikes of the previous two days, Reuters reported.
One of the air raid sirens forced Reymer into an underground bomb shelter in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, just moments before her interview with AM on Thursday.
"This is not totally abnormal. It's very common, although it is the first one we've had today since they finished earlier this morning," Reymer told AM from Kyiv.
Reymer said the strikes on Ukraine force air raid sirens to "ramp up in the evening".
"You get the air raid sirens and you take cover as a precaution, and we've seen just how important that has been this week with the intensity of the missiles that are hitting all over the country and back in Kyiv as well.
"But we've had the all clear and that's why we are back up here again back on the balcony and feeling relatively safe, but you do really brace for it in the evenings. Last night we were up, I think there were four or five from 1:30am in the morning onwards. So they do really ramp up in the evenings."
It comes after at least seven people were killed in a Russian strike on a crowded market in the town of Avdiivka on Wednesday, the governor of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region said.
"The Russians struck the central market where many people were at that time," Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a statement, adding there was "no military logic" for such an attack.
His statement was accompanied by pictures of dead bodies and damaged market stalls, according to Reuters, which could not verify their authenticity.
"This is in the far east, so not overly surprising that intense area of fighting continues to be a focus for Russia, it's where a lot of the frontline activity is happening," Reymer said of the attack.
"The strike on the market, though, incredibly devastating… but absolutely tragic news to have another deadly strike after all of the lives that have been lost this week."
Watch the full interview with Lisette Reymer above.
