Early on Sunday, the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, normally considered one of the safest in the country, suffered one of its most sustained and serious attacks since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.
For five hours, Russian Shahed drones and missiles targeted the city, which is about 70km (43 miles) from the Polish border. Large explosions were audible from the centre, a Unesco world heritage site.
Across the country at least five people were killed – four of them in the Lviv region, and one in the city of Zaporizhzhia – and 14 were injured. The victims included a 15-year-old girl, who died with three members of her family when their house was hit.
Poland’s air force said it scrambled jets and took preventive action to secure its airspace after an incursion last month by Russian decoy drones. There were also numerous drone sightings last week in EU countries including Germany and Denmark.
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Part of Lviv was left without electricity, according to the mayor, Andriy Sadovyi. Large fires broke out in several locations, including a civilian industrial park in the south of the city, he reported on his Telegram channel.
As the acrid smell of smoke and fumes engulfed the city, the regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, urged residents to close their windows and avoid going out or to use gas masks or respirators.
On Sunday morning, ash was still falling on the streets of Lviv, as exhausted residents ventured out and attended church services. The twisted metal remains of a Russian drone lay on a pavement outside a block of flats, cordoned off with red tape.
[ Russian strike hits passenger train in Ukraine, injuring dozensOpens in new window ]
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine had “again come under a combined Russian attack”. It involved more than 50 missiles and about 500 attack drones. They included cruse missiles, Iranian-designed Shaheds and Kinzhal ballistic missiles, he said.
Numerous regions were hit, including Ivano-Frankivsk, in the west of the country, as well as Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kherson, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv. Zelenskiy called on Ukraine’s allies to help boost air defences and to impose a no-fly zone – something they have so far been reluctant to do.
“A unilateral ceasefire in the skies is possible – and it is precisely that which could open the way to real diplomacy. America and Europe must act to make Putin stop,” he wrote on social media.
In recent days, Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing power blackouts in several areas, a tactic it has repeated in the run-up to winter for the past three years. Ukraine, meanwhile, continues to hit oil production facilities deep inside Russia with its own long-range drones.
Lviv was partway through the annual Lviv BookForum, with writers and audiences gathered in the city for one of the largest book festivals in eastern Europe.
Alongside Ukrainian writers, including poets Artur Dron and Julia Musakovska, there were international speakers including the British Forward prizewinning poet Fiona Benson, and, joining by video link, the Booker prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo, and the Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk. - The Guardian
