Lviv: Russia struck military targets in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv with high-precision cruise missile while President Joe Biden visited neighbouring Poland, a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim to be focusing its offensive on the country’s east.
Russia hit a fuel depot being used by Ukrainian forces near Lviv with long-range missiles and used cruise missiles to strike a plant in the city being used to repair anti-aircraft systems, radar stations and sights for tanks, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday.
“The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue offensive actions as part of the special military operation,” the ministry’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
The ministry showed video of the missile strikes in Lviv.
Officials in Lviv, just 60 km (40 miles) from the border with NATO-member Poland, said people had been wounded in the missile attacks.
Russia also used sea-based long-range missiles to destroy an arsenal of S-300 missiles and BUK anti-aircraft missile systems near Kyiv, the ministry said. Russian forces also destroyed a number of drones, it said.
Russia has started destroying Ukrainian fuel and food storage depots, meaning the government will have to disperse the stocks of both in the near future, Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said on Sunday.
The missile strikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 2,00,000 people who have had to flee their hometowns.
Lviv had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago.
Among the many who sought refuge in Lviv was Olana Ukrainets, a 34-year-old IT worker from the northeastern city of Kharkiv. “When I came to Lviv, I was sure that all these alarms wouldn’t have any results,” Ukrainets told The Associated Press from a bomb shelter after the blasts.
“Sometimes when I heard them at night, I just stayed in bed. Today, I changed my mind and I should hide every time. … None of the Ukrainian cities are safe now.”
The city was home to about 7,00,000 people before the invasion. Some who no longer feel safe here will head for nearby Poland. Biden met there Saturday with refugees in a show of solidarity, though he was in the capital, Warsaw, and far from the Ukrainian border, which is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Lviv.
Lviv also has become a humanitarian staging ground for Ukraine, and the attacks could further complicate the already challenging process of sending aid to the rest of the country.