Russia has launched an unusual daytime attack on Ukraine, hitting cities across the west of the country with over 400 drones on Tuesday afternoon.
Lviv regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said the Bernardine monastery, a 16th-Century Unesco site, was damaged. A video posted by Lviv authorities shows a fire burning through the roof of a residential building near the monastery.
Three other western cities, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia and Ternopil, were also targeted. The head of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Svitlana Onyshchuk, stated that two people were killed and four others, including a six-year-old child, were injured. Various buildings in Ivano-Frankivsk, as well as the maternity hospital, suffered damage.
In Lviv, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi reported that 13 people were injured, with the number expected to rise.
The strikes occurred just hours after a heavy overnight attack left at least five people dead when a drone hit an electric train in Kharkiv and additional casualties reported in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Poltava.
Historically, western Ukraine has been less affected by such aggressive attacks compared to areas closer to the Russian border in the east. Yurii Ihnat, spokesman of the Ukrainian Air Force, confirmed that a significant number of drones entered Ukrainian airspace from the north, reportedly moving in organized formations.
The geography of the strikes during the daytime was broader than at night... It can be said this was one of the largest attacks within a 24-hour period, he stated.
