A Russian airstrike on Ukraine’s western city of Lviv has left seven people dead, including three children, Ukrainian officials reported. The missile and drone attack on Lviv’s historic center comes as Moscow intensifies its aerial assaults in response to Ukraine’s recent offensive in Russia’s Kursk region.
The deadly strike has renewed Ukrainian officials’ calls for Western partners to provide advanced air defense systems and long-range weapons, allowing Ukraine to retaliate more effectively against targets deep inside Russian territory.
“In total, seven people died in Lviv, including three children,” Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Minister Igor Klymenko announced on the Telegram messaging app. He added that search and rescue operations were ongoing in Lviv, a city near the Polish border that has largely been spared from the conflict over the past two and a half years.
Air raid sirens blared across Lviv before dawn on Wednesday, as Mayor Andriy Sadovy urged residents to seek shelter. Ukrainian air defenses managed to intercept some of the incoming missiles, but the attack still caused widespread damage. According to the prosecutor’s office, at least 40 people were injured, and the strikes damaged schools, medical facilities, and other buildings in Lviv’s city center.
The assault on Lviv was part of a broader Russian offensive across Ukraine, with the Ukrainian air force reporting that 13 missiles and 29 drones were launched. Of these, seven missiles and 22 drones were successfully downed. However, debris from a downed missile in the central city of Kryvyi Rih damaged the Arena hotel and wounded five people, according to Ukrainian emergency services.
Ukrainian officials condemned the attacks on civilian infrastructure in Lviv and Kryvyi Rih. “The enemy will pay for what it has done,” vowed Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. The strikes have reignited Ukraine’s push for Western allies to lift restrictions on the use of their supplied weapons against Russian targets, a plea echoed by Shmyhal following the latest attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also renewed his call for Western nations to supply Ukraine with long-range weapons to “respond justly to terror.”
This overnight assault followed one of the war’s deadliest bombardments, which occurred in the central city of Poltava. Over 50 people were killed, and hundreds were injured in the attack on a military educational institution and a nearby hospital, marking another tragic escalation in the ongoing conflict.
