Russia struck the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Wednesday, killing seven people and damaging historical buildings in a rare attack hundreds of kilometres from the frontline.
Russia has stepped up its aerial attacks on Ukraine since Kyiv launched an unprecedented cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region last month.
“In total, seven people died in Lviv, including three children. The search and rescue operation is ongoing,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
The missile attack also wounded 40 people, damaging schools and medical facilities as well as buildings in Lviv’s historic centre, according to the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general.
The western city near the Polish border is home to a UNESCO world heritage site that covers its old town. It has been largely spared the intense strikes that have rocked cities further east.
But at least seven “architectural objects of local importance were damaged” in Wednesday’s barrage, regional head Maksym Kozytsky said.
The assault on Lviv, which is sheltering thousands displaced by over two years of war, came a day after a Russian strike on the central city of Poltava killed 53 people, one of the deadliest single strikes of the invasion.
The overnight attacks triggered renewed appeals from Ukraine for Western air defences, as well as long-range weapons to retaliate by striking targets deep inside Russia.
“I heard terrible inhuman screams saying ‘Save us,'” said Yelyzaveta, a 27-year-old resident of Lviv who rushed to shelter 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.
Zelensky denounced what he called “Russian terrorist strikes on Ukrainian cities”.
The attack on Lviv was part of a wider barrage on Ukraine, with 13 missiles and 29 drones launched at the war-torn country, the air force said.
The air force said it downed seven missiles and 22 drones.
Wreckage of a downed missile fell on the central city of Kryvyi Rig, Ukrainian emergency services said, damaging the Arena hotel and wounding five people.
“The hotel is destroyed from the first to the third floor. Thank God, everyone is alive,” the city’s head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal called for more air defence and for long-range weapons to strike Russia in the wake of the attack.
The weapons delivered by Ukraine’s Western partners since the invasion often come with restrictions prohibiting their use against most targets located inside Russia.
The overnight attack took place the day after a Russian strike on a military education institute in Poltava killed 53 people and wounded 271 — though authorities did not say how many of the victims were military or civilians.
Russia also said it was pressing on with its offensive in the country’s east, claiming the capture of the village of Karlivka, the latest in a string of territorial gains.
Karlivka is about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Pokrovsk, a major Russian target that lies on a key supply route for the Ukrainian army.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday his army was making rapid advances in the Donbas that covers the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
“We have not had such a pace of offensive in the Donbas for a long time,” he said.
Ukraine was also on Wednesday in the midst of a major government reshuffle, as Zelensky seeks to boost confidence in the government two and a half years into Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine’s wartime Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba submitted his resignation on Wednesday, a day after six other officials including cabinet ministers said they were stepping down.
“We need new energy. And these steps are related to strengthening our state in various areas,” Zelensky told journalists when asked about the changes.
Ukraine’s parliament approved some of the resignations in a session Wednesday, with Kuleba’s expected to be voted on later in the week.
A source close to the presidential office told AFP that Zelensky and Kuleba “will discuss and decide” his future post.
In a separate attack on Wednesday, Ukrainian shelling killed three people in occupied east Ukraine, according to the Russian-installed Donetsk region governor Denis Pushilin.