Deadly Russia strike targets Lviv in western Ukraine, Zelenskyy says

(LONDON) — Russian missiles struck Lviv in western Ukraine early on Wednesday, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens of others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a local official said.

A 14-year-old girl was among the dead, Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to the messaging app Telegram.

“More than 30 people were injured,” he added. “Ordinary residential buildings in the city, schools and medical institutions were damaged.”

Serhiy Kiral, the deputy mayor of Lviv, told ABC News that at least seven people — including three children — are confirmed killed.

“Firefighters are still working to put out the fire, to rescue people who may still be under the debris,” Kiral said early on Wednesday.

“It’s not clear what genius planned the target — these are purely residential neighborhoods in downtown Lviv, around the central train station,” Kiral added.

The strike was the western Ukrainian city’s worst since an attack last year that killed 10 people, Kiral said, adding, “Impunity leads to more crime; rule of thumb.”

Lviv was one of several cities that were targeted on Wednesday by Russian missiles, Zelenskyy said. Five people were also injured in Kryvyi Rih, he added. Ukraine’s air force wrote on Telegram that it downed seven cruise missiles and 22 attack drones overnight. Russia fired a total of two ballistic missiles, 11 cruise missiles, and 29 drones, the update said.

The most recent wave of attacks followed missile-and-drone barrages on Monday night and Tuesday morning that killed dozens of people in three cities. The deadliest incident was a double ballistic missile strike on the Poltava Military Communications Institute and a nearby hospital which killed more than 50 and wounded hundreds, Ukrainian officials said.

First lady Olena Zelenska said Tuesday’s attack was a “shocking tragedy for the whole of Ukraine. Zelenskyy said he “ordered a full and prompt investigation into all the circumstances of what happened.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram that the Poltava and Lviv strikes targeted military and defense industry targets.

The military college in Poltava, it said, was used to train communications and electronic warfare specialists, as well as drone operators who conducted strikes with uncrewed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, within Russia. Training there was conducted under the “guidance of foreign instructors,” the ministry alleged.

The Lviv attack was conducted using “long-range precision weapons,” including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and attack drones, the ministry’s report said. The strike targeted “enterprises of the Ukrainian defense industry complex” involved in the production and repair of “electronic components of aircraft and missile weapons.”

“The strike targets have been achieved,” the ministry said. “All designated objects have been hit.”

The Poltava attack came against a backdrop of intensifying Russian long-range strikes on Ukrainian cities, military targets and critical infrastructure nationwide.

Zelenskyy and his top officials have been pressing their Western partners, including the U.S., to loosen restrictions on Kyiv’s use of Western weapons, and to allow Ukrainian forces to strike airfields and launch sites within Russia.

“Russia does not have a free hand,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in a Tuesday press briefing when questioned on the issue. “We continue to supply Ukraine with air-defense systems,” he continued.

“We continue to supply Ukraine with other equipment that it can use to push back on Russian military assaults, and that’ll continue to be our policy,” he said.