Lviv, a large city in western Ukraine spared by the fighting so far, suffered two Russian strikes on Saturday afternoon, hitting a fuel depot and injuring at least five people, according to local authorities.
The strikes hit an “industrial facility where fuel is stored, no residential buildings were hit,” city mayor Andriy Sadovy said shortly after on Telegram. He had previously confirmed an initial assessment of five wounded provided by the regional governor, Maxime Kozytski, and called on residents to stay in shelters until the end of anti-aircraft alerts. The facility is in an eastern district of the city, Lychakivsky. Shortly after the strikes, reporters saw billowing clouds of thick black smoke and flames rising above the neighborhood.
Missiles in the sky
A 21-year-old witnessed the scene, he was in front of his building. According to him, several passers-by shouted “missile”. The young man tells AFP: “I looked at the sky, a missile was flying, followed by a plane. Thirty seconds later, another missile appeared. Then I heard two explosions, one, very loud, resounded in the sky, the other, more muted, on the ground. And then a big plume of black smoke appeared in that direction.”
The regional governor, Maxime Kozytski, posted on Telegram a video of him driving, saying he had returned from the site of the explosions. “Everything is under control, the information is following, stay calm,” he said.
city of refuge
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Lviv has become a city of refuge to accommodate displaced people from other cities, as well as several Western embassies transferred from kyiv. Many refugees leaving for Poland or other EU countries also stop there. The city suffered a first strike on March 18, which hit an aircraft repair factory near the airport, without causing any casualties, according to the mayor.
On March 13, Russian cruise missiles targeted a major military base about 40 kilometers northwest of Lviv, killing at least 35 people and injuring 134.
