A rare Russian drone strike a day Ukraine Three people were killed, several dozen injured and a building in the historic center of the western city was destroyed Lviv It burned Tuesday after an overnight bombing that killed five people, officials said.
More than 550 drones were fired into Ukraine in the middle of the day, the Ukrainian air force said, an abrupt turnaround of Russia During the war, which lasted more than four years, the usual tactic was to launch similarly massive air raids at night.
It followed an earlier attack overnight in which hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles were fired. In total, Russia has fired almost 1,000 long-range drones into Ukraine since Monday evening, Kiev said.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his late-night video address that the scale of the attacks showed that more pressure needed to be put on Russia.
“The scale of this attack clearly shows that Russia has no real intention to end this war. And considering that Russia also supports the Iranian regime in carrying out attacks in the region, the conclusion is obvious,” he said.
“Without additional and strong pressure on Russia, without noticeable losses for them there in Moscow, there will be no desire to get out of the war or return to peace.”
Video footage posted online showed a drone crashing into an old building next to a church in the historic center of Lviv, 60 km (37 miles) from the Polish border, and Warsaw said it shot down warplanes.
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According to officials, 22 people were injured in the city.
Russia attack hits UNESCO world heritage site
The attack stunned residents of Lviv, which is closer to Vienna than the nearest active front line on the other side of Ukraine. Although there have been some fatal bombings here, they are far less frequent than in other major cities.
Resident Tetiana Kachkovska saw the drone glide past the fifth-floor window of her workplace.
“My hands were shaking, my legs were shaking,” she remembers. “You can’t get used to it.”
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said a residential building was hit by a second drone. Debris from a third fell onto a street.
“Russia attacks a crowded city center in broad daylight,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X.
Lviv Region Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said part of the Bernardine monastery complex in the historic center of Lviv, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was damaged.
In another western Ukrainian city, Ivano-Frankivsk, a National Guard soldier and his 15-year-old daughter were killed in a strike, according to regional governor Svitlana Onyshchuk.
She said he attended the birth of his daughter at a nearby maternity hospital a few days ago. Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said the windows of that hospital were blown out but no one inside was injured.
Vinnytsia Governor Natalia Sabolotna said one person was killed and 13 injured in her region southwest of Kiev.
Air defense deployed drones near Kiev throughout the day.
Officials in the western Ternopil region said two energy facilities were attacked.
Moscow denies attacks on civilians, although its attacks have killed thousands of people since the February 2022 invasion. It says Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure is a legitimate target because attacking it could harm Kiev’s ability to wage war.
Ukraine has also targeted Russia’s energy system, particularly oil refineries, depots and transportation terminals.
Previous nighttime attacks killed five people across Ukraine and led to power disruptions in Moldova, where parliament declared a 60-day energy emergency.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia fired 34 missiles and 392 drones overnight and that 25 missiles and 365 drones were shot down or neutralized.
Two people were killed and 12 injured, including a five-year-old child, near the eastern city of Poltava, a regional official said.
Zelensky said damage had been reported in 11 regions and again appealed to allies to provide air defense munitions.
He has repeatedly warned that Kiev, whose main supplier of ballistic missile air defense systems is the United States, will face a missile deficit as Washington focuses on the US-Israeli war against Iran.
