Russia launches large-scale airstrike on western Ukraine
Russia launched a large-scale airstrike on the western Ukrainian regions of Lviv and Volyn on Tuesday, hitting several buildings, injuring people and forcing evacuations, Ukrainian officials said, cited by Reuters.
Ukrainian media reported that, according to preliminary information, the Tuesday attack was the largest airstrike on the Lviv region since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
"Many rockets were shot down, but there were also targets hit in Lviv," the city's mayor, Andriy Sadovy, said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that orders had been given to evacuate at least one apartment building in flames.
One of the rockets fell in the courtyard of a kindergarten, but did not cause any casualties.
The size of the attack and the total extent of the damage in Lviv was not immediately clear. Earlier, Lviv region governor Maksym Kozitsky said that "groups of Russian rockets" were heading towards the region.
Until July, the Lviv region, which is far from the front lines and borders NATO member Poland to the west, had been spared from most of Russia's air strikes. But in July, seven people were killed when a rocket hit a residential building.
A commercial enterprise was also hit, injuring at least two people, in a Russian airstrike on the city of Lutsk, in the Volyn region, local authorities said on Telegram.
The Volyn region, north of Lviv, also borders Poland.
Air raid alerts were issued for the entire Ukraine for about two hours, around 2am.
At least one person was also injured in the Russian attack on the Ukrainian Dnipropetrovsk region, in southwestern Ukraine, where a company was hit and a fire broke out, said Serhii Lisak, the region's governor, on Telegram.
Other regions were also hit, such as Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy and Dnipro.
