KYIV, Ukraine — A barrage of Russian cruise missiles killed at least 10 people and injured dozens just before dawn on Thursday in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, far from the front lines of the war.
Last week, at least 13 people, including an acclaimed writer, were killed when a missile hit a popular restaurant in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down seven of 10 Kalibr cruise missiles that were fired from the Black Sea early that morning. Several missiles hit a residential area in Lviv, damaging at least 30 houses and 50 cars. At least 40 people were wounded in the attack, authorities said.
Maksym Kozytskyi, head of Lviv’s regional administration, confirmed that a 32-year-old woman named Anastasia and her 60-year-old mother, Myroslava, were killed.
Local media later identified the daughter as Anastasia Seniv, who worked for Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s postal service, and was soon to be married.
“Eternal memory to those we lost,” Kozytskyi wrote in a statement posted on Telegram. “Let’s take revenge!”
Ukraine’s defense ministry called the overnight attack “the most devastating one on the city since the beginning of the full-scale war,” which was echoed in a video posted on Twitter by Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi.
Lviv, close to the border with Poland, is often regarded as a cosmopolitan safe haven, though the region has come under fire numerous times, particularly in attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Ukrainian academic Sasha Dovzhyk, posting on Twitter, said that Russia had hit “one of the safest places in Ukraine.”
“I was 2 km away from the site,” Dovzhyk wrote. “The walls in the bathroom where I was hiding shook from the explosion.”
Rescuers worked for more than 17 hours Thursday to clear debris and scoured the rubble for survivors, according to Ukraine’s emergency services and Lviv’s mayor. Drone footage from the scene showed workers combing the top floors of a shattered apartment block in the early morning, working amid smashed concrete and broken glass.
“Psychologists also work on-site. Mobile police stations have been deployed, where they accept applications from victims and provide the necessary assistance. Everyone works without rest,” read the statement from the emergency services.
By Friday morning, the search and rescue operation was over, with Sadovyi reporting 10 bodies found in the rubble.