Russian Airstrikes on Lviv and Kyiv: Casualties and Destruction

A recent Russian air attack on Lviv, near the Polish border, left three dead and over 30 injured, targeting historic buildings. This followed a deadly strike on Poltava, killing 50. Children and civilians were among the casualties. Poland's air defence was on high alert due to the ongoing threat.

A Russian air attack on Ukraine's western city of Lviv, not far from the border with NATO member Poland, has killed three people, injured more than 30, and destroyed historic buildings in the heart of the city, regional officials said on Wednesday.

The strikes came a day after the war's deadliest single attack this year, when Russia hit a military institute in the central town of Poltava with two ballistic missiles, killing 50 and wounding hundreds more.

Among those killed in Lviv by the drone and missile attack was a 14-year-old girl, early details showed, with five children among the injured, the regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv city, which is the administrative centre of the wider Lviv region, said the dead included a midwife nurse and a man, while 35 people were receiving medical aid.

In a video posted on Telegram that showed the mayor among the debris of a destroyed building, he said more than 50 structures, from schools to homes and clinics, most of them in the heart of the city, had been damaged. A Reuters witness in the city also reported damage to buildings.

Neighbouring Poland scrambled aircraft on Wednesday for the third time in eight days to maintain the safety of its airspace, the armed forces' operational command said. "This is another very busy night for the entire air defence system in Poland due to ... the long-range aviation of the Russian Federation carrying out strikes," the command said on X.

On Wednesday, Russia also hit Kyiv and several other regions with missiles, but no immediate damage was reported. Russia has been pounding Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones in the past 10 days, in what some Russian military bloggers call Moscow's response to Kyiv's recent incursion into its territory.

Russia has yet to comment on the attacks on Poltava and Wednesday's strikes on Lviv and Kyiv. Moscow has often said its strikes target Ukraine's military, energy, and transport infrastructure, not civilians.

(With inputs from agencies.)