LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian missiles hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early on Sunday, the city’s mayor said, adding that an industrial facility was struck but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Lviv, a city of about 700,000 people near the border with Poland, has been largely spared Russian attacks since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24, although missiles struck its airport in March.
Mair Andriy Sadovyi said on the Telegram messaging app that four explosions had been heard in the city. He later said one industrial facility had been hit.
“There could be victims. Rescuers are working on the scene,” Sadovyi said.
He urged residents to stay in shelters.
Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the strike independently.
The attack on Lviv came as Russia said its forces were stepping up strikes on Ukrainian military targets after what it said was the killing of dozens of Russian prisoners of war in an attack on a prison in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of shelling the prison in Olenivka, in territory held by Moscow-backed separatists in the Donetsk region, killing 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Moscow has blamed Ukraine for the attack.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had struck a military training centre in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv, where foreign mercenaries were based, killing up to 250 people.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the Russian account of the attack.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of a wider conflict in Europe.
After failing to capture Kyiv in the early weeks of the invasion, Russia has focused its offensive on eastern Ukraine, where its forces have made slow but steady progress.
Ukraine has launched a counter-offensive in the south, where it says it has retaken some territory.
Western countries have condemned Russia’s invasion and imposed sanctions on Moscow. Ukraine has called on the West to provide more weapons and support as it tries to repel the Russian invasion.
The United States on Saturday imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian individuals and entities, including the country’s central bank and finance minister.
The sanctions are the latest in a series of measures taken by the West to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia says its “special military operation” in Ukraine is necessary to protect Russian-speaking people in the country from what it calls a “Nazi” government in Kyiv.
Ukraine and its Western allies reject that characterisation of the conflict and say Russia is engaged in an unprovoked war of aggression against a sovereign state.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Lviv, Ukraine and Reuters bureaux; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Frances Kerry and Bernadette Baum).
