Five “powerful” Russian missile strikes hit Monday morning Lviv, a large city in western Ukraine usually relatively spared from the fighting, announced its mayor and an adviser to the presidency.
A resident of southwest Lviv told AFP he saw thick plumes of gray smoke rising into the sky behind apartment buildings.
“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 assessment.
Ukrainian railways, for their part, indicated on Telegram that “several missiles fell near railway installations”, without causing any casualties and without hindering traffic.
“We will repair our damaged infrastructure. The railway continues to operate, ”said the chairman of the board of directors of the company, Alexandre Kamychine, publishing the photo of houses on fire directly near a railway line.
“The Russians continue to barbarically attack Ukrainian cities from the air, cynically declaring to the world their ‘right’ to…kill Ukrainians,” Podoliak said.
Located far from the front, Lviv and western Ukraine have rarely been targeted by bombardments since the start of the Russian invasion 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.
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.