Dnipro residents reeling after devastating hypersonic missile strike

Market worker Zhanna was used to the regular rumble of missiles and drones pounding her home city of Dnipro in Ukraine since Russia invaded almost three years ago.

Thursday's hypersonic missile strike was like nothing she had heard before.

"We are always afraid, but it was different somehow," the 49-year-old told AFP.

Video showed bright flashes raining down on the city with immense speed, in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a demonstration of a weapon that can travel up to three kilometers (two miles) per second.

The attack damaged a rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, as well as several homes, according to the local governor, although there were no reported deaths.

Military experts suggested the missile was capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

"Didn't you see the video on the internet?" Zhanna said of the strike. "You don't understand how it falls and ignites and catches fire."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack showed Russia was ramping up the "scale and brutality" of the war, accusing Moscow of turning his country into a weapons-testing ground.

Putin said the strike targeted an "industrial complex" in the city and was a response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil with British and US long-range weapons -- operations Kyiv's allies had previously forbidden.

 'We had no time'  

The streets of Dnipro were busy the day after the attack, although some residents complained of a lack of sleep.

Yan Valetov, a writer from the area, said he heard a very "strong roar" and a "series of explosions".

"It was very loud. My cat woke up with an incredibly concerned look on her face," the 61-year-old told AFP, saying the speed of the missile left residents little time to prepare.

"There was an approach time of six minutes. I think if they had time to switch on the (air alert), we had no time to hear it," he added.

Near the rehabilitation center damaged in the blast, AFP saw twisted pieces of metal which appeared to be shrapnel, dotted around the floor.

The roof of a boiler room supplying heating to the center had completely collapsed from the blast wave, while debris and tiles lay scattered around underfoot.

"Everyone was a little bit agitated by it," boiler room worker Oleksandr Parkhomenko told AFP of the strike.

The 63-year-old said he was relieved the missile left few casualties, but worried about what might come next.

"Anything can happen," he said.