CNN Airs HUGE Explosion In the Sky Over Kyiv: ‘It Looks Like a Large Aircraft’

CNN aired footage of an object that was reportedly shot out of the sky over Kyiv on Thursday night.

On Don Lemon Tonight, the host welcomed a panel of guests and correspondents who were reporting from inside Ukraine, which is besieged by violence following Russia’s invasion a day earlier.

Lemon played different angles of what appeared to be burning debris falling from the sky, which according to one initial report may have been a missile.

Matthew Chance, who is in Kyiv for CNN’s ongoing coverage of the war, was in the area when the event occurred.

He reported that an advisor with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that “it is a missile that was shot out of the sky by anti-missile defense systems from Ukraine. I wasn’t aware, but it might be my ignorance, I wasn’t aware that Ukraine had anti-missile defense systems capable of shooting missiles out of the sky.”

Chance commented Ukraine’s air defenses might be much more “sophisticated” than was previously believed.

“But I heard a Russian voice, and my Russian isn’t great, but I heard the Russian voice as that item, that object exploded into the little pieces and fell to Earth, say the word ‘samolet,’ which means ‘airplane.’ It means Airplane in Russian.”

Later, Lemon discussed the mystery object over Kyiv with retired Gen. Mark Hertling.

“What do you think this was?” Lemon asked.

Hertling responded by stating he did not want to speculate. He then speculated he believed the item to be a large aircraft:

Yeah,’m not going to conject on this, Don. I’m not a military analyst, or intelligence analyst, but that looks like an aircraft. It looks like a large aircraft. The Ukrainian forces do have Stinger missiles. The Javelins are the anti-tank missiles. The Stingers are the aircraft missiles. They have a range of about 3,500 meters. That aircraft looked like it was flying under the cloud cover.

“It’s tough to knock down a missile with a Stinger,” Hertling noted. “All this is conjecture. That looks like an awful lot like a large aircraft, like a transport plane or possibly even a bomber.”

Hertling concluded, “If it was an aircraft, it could be carrying either bombs or airborne soldiers. If it was missile, it was a very lucky shot.”

CNN reported Kyiv was struck by a missile on Thursday evening. It is unclear if that report is related to the images shared by Lemon.

Watch above, via CNN.