Two Ukranian motorists are lucky to be alive after they were inches away from a ballistic missile falling directly on their car as they were driving on a Kyiv motorway.

Explosions rattled Kyiv during daylight on Monday as Russian ballistic missiles took aim at the Ukrainian capital, hours after a more common nighttime barrage of the city by drones and cruise missiles.

Russian forces fired 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv about 11.30am according to Ukraine’s chief of staff, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. All of them were shot down, he said, and puffs of white smoke could be seen in the blue sky over the city from street level.

Debris from the intercepted missiles fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts during the morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road and also starting a fire on the roof of a building, the Kyiv military administration said. At least one civilian was reported hurt.

In the video, the missile drops down on to the middle of the road, narrowly missing two white cars. Photo / @AlexPanchenko2 / Twitter

In the video of the near-miss, the missile can be seen dropping down into the middle of the road, narrowly avoiding two cars.

The missile hit the overhead traffic signs before cannoning into the road and exploding.

Fragments are seen flying in the air as the road is seen catching fire with black smoke billowing into the sky.

The blasts unnerved some locals, already under strain after being awakened by the night attack.

“After what happened last night, I react sharply to every siren now. I was terrified, and I’m still trembling,” shared Alina Ksenofontova, a 50-year-old woman who took refuge in the Kyiv subway with her dog Bublik.

Artem Zhyla, a 24-year-old who provides legal services abroad, took his laptop with him and kept working underground.

Debris from the intercepted missiles fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts during the morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road. Photo / Twitter / @AlexPanchenko2

“I heard two or three explosions, went to the bathroom, and then I heard five or seven more explosions. That’s when I realised something terrible was happening,” he said.

Like many others in the capital, he feels exhausted and stressed. However, he has no intention of giving up and plans to attend his yoga class to recharge.

“This is certainly not enough to break us,” he said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska both posted a video of what they said were frightened schoolchildren running and screaming down a Kyiv street toward a bomb shelter as sirens wailed.

“This is what an ordinary weekday looks like,” the president wrote on Telegram.