Lviv, Ukraine’s far western city, has been spared most of the bloodshed and destruction since then. Russia begins its full-scale invasion It broke away from its former Soviet-era ally two and a half years ago. But before dawn on Wednesday, Moscow reminded Ukraine and its Western backers that the city is only 40 miles from the Ukrainian border. NATO members Poland is also not untouched by the war.
Residents of Lviv began reporting explosions at 5:40 a.m. local time, damaging buildings near the city’s railway station, homes, schools and clinics. Mayor Andriy Sadovy said Russia had dropped drones and bombs. Hypersonic Kinjal MissileMore than 50 buildings were damaged in the city center. Officials said at least seven people, including three children, were killed in the incident.
In a video widely circulated on social media, rescuers frantically search the rubble of a destroyed house, and a lifeless, dust-covered girl is found buried under the rubble. Two girls, aged nine and 14, and a child are reported to have died. Dozens of people have been injured.
Mykola Tyus/Global Images Ukraine/Getty
The attack so close to Poland prompted the government in Warsaw to send fighter jets to the Ukrainian border region, and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told the Financial Times that “NATO membership does not detract from each country’s responsibility to protect its own airspace – this is our own constitutional duty.”
“My personal view is that when hostile missiles are in a position to enter our airspace, it would be legitimate self-defence to shoot them down, because once they enter our airspace, the risk of someone being injured by debris is very high,” he told the FT.
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Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military has put the entire country on alert to prepare for further air strikes. Russia has bombarded the capital Kyiv and across the country with hundreds of missiles and drones since Sunday, possibly in revenge for Russia’s surprise invasion of Ukraine in the Kursk region nearly a month ago.
Russian forces have so far been unable to dislodge the occupying Ukrainian troops, and Kiev says it now holds about 450 square miles of Russian territory, about half the size of Rhode Island.
The city of Poltava in eastern war-torn Ukraine on Wednesday still failed to recover from a Russian attack the previous morning. Attack with ballistic missiles The attack on the Poltava Military Communications Institute training center killed at least 51 people and injured more than 200. It was Moscow’s deadliest attack since October, when a Russian airstrike struck 59 people attending a funeral were killed in a cafe in the Kharkiv region.
“Three seconds after the first one, the second one fell. I ran outside, there was smoke and dust everywhere,” said cadet Mykyta Petrov, who was inside the military academy in Poltava when the missiles fell Tuesday. “Many people were smoking cigarettes outside. Many of them were killed.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to take revenge on Russia for the deadly attack, and an investigation has been launched to determine whether adequate steps were taken to secure the military training facility.
“Russian scoundrels will pay a price for this,” he said, also expressing disappointment at his Western allies.
“Air defense systems are needed here in Ukraine, not in some warehouse,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba resigned from his post after Russia’s attack on Poltava. Kuleba, 43, was the face of Ukrainian diplomacy around the world, trying to rally global support for the country since the war began.
Zelensky said last week that he would make a major reshuffle of the government before winter.
