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 announced that the Bernardine monastery, a 16th-Century UNESCO site, was damaged. A video shared by Lviv authorities captured a fire engulfing the roof of a residential building nearby the monastery.
Other targeted cities included Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, and Ternopil.
The head of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Svitlana Onyshchuk, reported that two individuals were killed, with four others, including a six-year-old child, injured. Multiple buildings and a maternity hospital were also damaged in the wave of strikes.
In Lviv, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi stated that 13 residents were injured and cautioned that the number might rise further.
This attack occurred just hours after a heavy overnight bombardment left at least five dead across the country.
A 61-year-old woman was killed by a drone that struck an electric train in Kharkiv early Tuesday, with further fatalities reported in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Poltava.
Despite four years of ongoing conflict, western Ukraine has experienced comparatively less intense attacks than regions closer to the Russian border.
Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, indicated that a large number of drones entered Ukrainian airspace from the north, moving in organized formations. He characterized the scale of the daytime attack as one of the largest assaults within a 24-hour timeframe.
