Ukrainian leaders compare Russia's attack on Kyiv to Nazi Germany's assault on the city in 1941

• Multiple explosions were reported over the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early Friday morning.
• Ukraine's foreign minister compared the attack to Nazi Germany's assault on the city in 1941.

Russia's attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv has prompted comparisons to Nazi Germany's assault on the city in 1941.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invoked World War II while speaking directly to the Russian people in a speech Friday morning as explosions were reported over Kyiv.

"Tonight you began bombing residential areas in the hero city of Kyiv. This is like 1941. I want to tell all Russian citizens who are coming out to protest: we hear you, you heard us, you started to believe us. Fight for us. Fight the war," Zelensky said.

Ukraine's top diplomat also made the comparison while condemning the "horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv" that targeted the capital early Friday morning, a day after Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany," Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, said in a tweet. "Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one. Stop Putin. Isolate Russia."

—Justin Ling (@Justin_Ling) February 25, 2022

The impact of the Friday morning explosions, including the numbers of projectiles launched or casualties sustained, was not immediately clear. On Thursday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" in Ukraine and began sending troops into the country from several directions in addition to launching airstrikes and shelling.

An adviser to Zelensky also compared Russia's attacks to the invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, when German troops defeated the Red Army and won the first battle of Kyiv in 1941.

"Our capital was bombed at such a time and in such a way twice in history," Mykhailo Podoliak said, according to The Kyiv Independent. "Just like in 1941, now the attacker can only get the hatred of the people and nothing more."

Max Seddon, the Financial Times' Moscow bureau chief, said in a tweet that the early morning attacks were reminiscent of a famous Soviet ballad from World War II that goes: "On 22nd July at 4 a.m. they bombed Kyiv / They told us the war had begun."

"This time the missiles are coming from Russia," Seddon added.

A Ukrainian journalist also wrote about the phrase "4 a.m. Kyiv is bombed" in an op-ed for The Guardian on Thursday.

"Every Ukrainian and Russian kid knows it. That's how the announcement of the German bombardment of Kyiv in 1941 sounded," Nataliya Gumenyuk wrote. "And here we are: 24 February, 5 a.m. Kyiv is bombed by Russia."