KYIV, Ukraine — Air-raid sirens sounded in Kyiv late Wednesday night after a bright light flashed in the sky over the city.

The cause of the flash was not immediately clear, a senior official said. Air-raid alerts have in the past sounded after missiles or drones reached the capital, rather than in advance of an attack, in rare instances where the weapons have avoided detection by radar.

Some flash in Kyiv reported. Possible meteor or some space thing falling. Red Alert declared aftermath. pic.twitter.com/kHnJt9WNn4

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, posted on social media that air defenses were firing in Kyiv, but then wrote that the Air Force would provide an update later on the cause of the flash. A video from a car’s dashboard camera posted on the Telegram social networking site showed a bright flash and a streak of burning debris in the sky.

There was speculation among the public and officials that a NASA spacecraft that was expected to re-enter the atmosphere sometime Wednesday evening had caused the flash. The craft had collected data from solar flares, and most of it was expected to incinerate on re-entry. According to the U.S. Defense Department, the re-entry was not expected for hours.

The Kyiv military administration issued a warning that “airborne targets have been detected in the sky” and said air defense forces were on alert. The air raid alert was in effect for about an hour in Kyiv after the flash before an all clear was announced.

Air raid alerts also sounded elsewhere in Ukraine on Wednesday evening, in one instance after rather than before an explosion was heard. In the city of Dnipro, south of Kyiv, residents heard an explosion before an air raid siren sounded, Ukrainska Pravda newspaper reported.

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