Russia hits Lviv, prepares eastern assault

Russian forces launched missile attacks on the western city of Lviv and pounded a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the country’s defences ahead of an all-out assault on the east.

At least seven people were reported killed in Lviv, where plumes of black smoke rose over a city that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere.

To the Kremlin’s increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major conduit for NATO-supplied weapons and foreign fighters joining the Ukrainian cause.

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Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia.

Elsewhere, a few thousand Ukrainian troops, by Russia’s estimate, remained holed up at a mammoth steel mill in Mariupol, the last known pocket of resistance in the devastated southern port city after seven weeks of bombardment.

The holdouts ignored a surrender ultimatum from the Russians on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also submitted a filled-out questionnaire in the first step toward obtaining accelerated membership in the European Union – a desire that has been a source of irritation to Russia for years.

Zelenskyy, though, has offered to drop any effort to join NATO, one of the Kremlin’s key demands.

The Russian missile strikes on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto mechanic shop, according to the region’s governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child.

Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometres from Poland, a NATO member.

A hotel there sheltering elderly Ukrainians, mothers and children who had fled fighting in other parts of the country was among the buildings badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said.

“The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv,” said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from Kharkiv. “There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe.”

A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to a military air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was hit.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene.

One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found lying with a water canister and an umbrella by her side.

Military analysts say Russia is increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railways and other infrastructure targets across Ukraine to wear down the country’s ability to resist a major ground offensive in the Donbas, Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland.

General Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia is waging a “softening-up” campaign ahead of the offensive in the Donbas, whose capture has become the Kremlin’s main goal since its attempt to storm Kyiv failed.

Russia hits Lviv, prepares eastern assault
Independent Information