A Russian missile attack on the historic center of Lviv, western Ukraine, has claimed the lives of seven people, including three children, according to Ukrainian officials on Wednesday. This attack follows a devastating strike on the central city of Poltava the previous day, which resulted in the deaths of dozens. Moscow has escalated its aerial assaults in response to Ukraine’s offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, an operation that caught Russian forces by surprise.
The overnight attacks have amplified calls from Ukrainian officials for Western allies to provide air defense systems and long-range weapons to counter Russian aggression. Interior Minister Igor Klymenko reported on Telegram that seven people perished in Lviv, including three children, revising an earlier casualty count. Rescue efforts are still underway in Lviv, a city near the Polish border that has largely been spared the brunt of the war for the past two and a half years.
Sirens blared across Lviv before sunrise on Wednesday, prompting Mayor Andriy Sadovy to urge residents to take shelter as air defenses engaged a barrage of missiles. The missile attack caused injuries to 40 people, according to the prosecutor’s office, and damaged schools, medical facilities, and buildings in the city’s historic district.
“I heard terrible inhuman screams saying ‘Save us’,” said Yelyzaveta, a 27-year-old Lviv resident who sought refuge in her basement. Others, like Anastasia Grynko, an internally displaced person from Dnipro, did not have time to reach a shelter. “The rocket hit our house. Everything was blown away. At the time of the explosion, I was somehow miraculously in the corridor, so I was not badly hurt,” she said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned what he described as “Russian terrorist strikes on Ukrainian cities”. Maksym Kozytsky, the head of the Lviv region, stated that “at least seven architectural objects of local importance were damaged”, noting that these buildings were situated in the historical area and within UNESCO’s buffer zone.
The attack in Lviv was part of a wider assault on Ukraine, involving 13 missiles and 29 drones launched across the war-torn country, according to the Ukrainian air force. The air force claimed to have shot down seven missiles and 22 drones.
Wreckage from a downed missile fell in the central city of Kryvyi Rig, damaging the Arena hotel and injuring five people, according to Ukrainian emergency services. “The hotel is destroyed from the first to the third floor. Thank God, everyone is alive,” said Oleksandr Vilkul, the city’s head.
Ukrainian officials strongly condemned the overnight attacks on civilian infrastructure in Lviv and Kryvyi Rig. “The enemy will pay for what it has done,” declared Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal, urging for enhanced air defense and long-range weapons to strike back at Russia.
The weapons provided by Ukraine’s Western partners since the invasion often come with restrictions preventing their use against targets within Russia itself. Ukraine has been pushing for the removal of these restrictions, a call echoed by Shmygal following the recent strikes. Zelenskyy also appealed to Western allies to supply Ukraine with long-range weapons to “respond justly to terror”.
The overnight attacks occurred shortly after one of the deadliest bombardments of the two-and-a-half-year war in the central city of Poltava. The attack on a military educational institution resulted in the deaths of 53 people and injuries to 271, although authorities did not disclose the breakdown between military and civilian casualties.
