Russian Missiles Kill 4 in Western Ukraine

At least four people were killed and 34 wounded in a Russian cruise missile attack overnight on the western Ukrainian city of Liviv, 50 miles from the Polish border. It was the most punishing attack on Lviv, a refuge for many Ukrainians displaced by the war, since Russia first invaded. 

The missile volley destroyed the top two floors of an apartment building, where the four were killed. The damage included an estimated 30 houses, 11 dormitories housing internally-displaced Ukrainians, an orphanage and about 50 cars, the region’s military administration said.

“Russians are hitting us. That’s how they love us,” an injured local resident, Ganna Fedorenko, told the Associated Press, her face covered in bloody bandages. “I’m sorry for those people who were killed. They were young.”

“This is terrible. They hit civilians.”

Russian forces launched 10 Kalibr cruise missiles from ships and submarines on the Black Sea around 3 a.m. local time, the Ukrainian air force said. Air defenses were able to shoot down seven. 

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said around 60 apartments were damaged. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised retaliation. “Unfortunately, there are wounded and dead,” he said on Telegram. “My condolences to the families! There will definitely be a response to the enemy. A tangible one.”

“Russia’s repeated attacks on civilians are absolutely horrifying,” U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said on Twitter. 

Lviv is 300 miles from the front lines, where Ukraine is in the early stages of a counteroffensive to win back territory captured by Russia.

Sergey Kruk, head of the state emergency service, said the strike may have been meant to intimidate Ukraine's European allies. “This is the city that meets Europeans every day on the border with Poland and has become a refuge for thousands of Ukrainians since the beginning of the war.”

The Lviv region is home to an estimated 247.000 Ukrainians displaced by the war, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.  

Elsewhere, the air force reported shooting down seven Russian drones over Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine on the Black Sea.