En this Easter Monday, the city of Lviv, located in western Ukraine, was hit by five “powerful” Russian missile strikes, announced the mayor and an adviser to the presidency. A resident of southwest Lviv told Agence France-Presse that he saw thick plumes of gray smoke rising into the sky behind apartment buildings. The first toll is at least six dead and eight injured. The strikes “seriously damaged” military infrastructure, the regional governor announced. “At this time, seven dead are known,” added Maksym Kozitsky on Telegram, also referring to “eleven injured, including a child”, and specifying that three injured are “in serious condition”. Three strikes hit military infrastructure and one on a tire garage, which caused fires. All targets are “severely damaged” according to him.
“Five powerful missile strikes at once on the civilian infrastructure of the old European city of Lviv”, announced on Twitter Mikhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky. The mayor of the city, Andriï Sadovy, confirmed, indicating on Telegram that the relief was on the spot and did not have an immediate report. “The Russians continue to barbarically attack Ukrainian cities from the air, cynically declaring to the whole world their ‘right’ to… kill Ukrainians”, lambasted Mikhaïlo Podoliak.
Located far from the front, Lviv and western Ukraine have rarely been targeted by bombardment since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. On March 26, Lviv suffered a series of Russian strikes, two of which hit a fuel depot and injured five, according to local authorities.
Headquarters of Western Embassies
The city had also been the target on March 18 of a strike which had hit an aircraft repair factory near the airport, without causing any casualties. And on March 13, Russian cruise missiles targeted a major military base about 40 kilometers northwest of Lviv, killing at least 35 people and injuring 134. Close to the Polish border, Lviv has become a city of refuge for displaced persons and at the start of the war hosted several Western embassies transferred from kyiv.
