At least 6 dead in Russian missile attack on West Ukraine’s ‘safe haven’ Lviv
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At least 6 dead in Russian missile attack on West Ukraine’s ‘safe haven’ Lviv

With southern port Mariupol on the verge of fall, Russia will concentrate on the east while targetting the west with long-distance missiles.

   
Scene from the explosions site in the western Ukraine city | Twitter/@lesiavasylenko

Scene from the explosions site in the western Ukraine city | Twitter/@lesiavasylenko

New Delhi: Russian missiles shattered the relative peace in the western Ukraine city of Lviv on Monday morning and killed at least six people.

Witnesses told the Associated Press that several explosions were heard early Monday believed to have been caused by Russian missiles.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on Facebook that five missiles had hit the city and emergency services were responding to the attack.

Explosions were also heard in the western city of Dnipropetrovsk that injured two, Reuters reported.

West Ukraine, along with Lviv, has seen less fighting than other parts of the country and was thought to be a “safe haven”.

Russia has stepped up its assault in the country, particularly after its warship Moskva sank in the Black Sea on 14 April.

The aggressor’s biggest win so far has been the near-fall of the strategic southern port of Mariupol which is now reduced to rubble after a seven-day siege.

According to reports, a Ukrainian column of a few thousand fighters were holed up in a steel plant and fighting bravely. The Russians had asked them to surrender by dawn Sunday.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told ABC Sunday, “We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war… we do not have intention to surrender.”

Reuters explained how a win in Mariupol would be beneficial to Russia’s battle plans. Its report said: “Capturing Mariupol would be a strategic prize for Russia, linking territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region Moscow annexed in 2014.

“On the eve of the war, it was the biggest city still held by Ukrainian authorities in the two eastern provinces known as the Donbas, which Moscow has demanded Ukraine cede to pro-Russian separatists.

“It would unite Russian forces on two of the main axes of the invasion, and free them up to join an expected new offensive against the main Ukrainian force in the east.”

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of “torture and kidnappings” in areas they control.

Zelenskyy also said 18 people were killed in the last four days in northeastern Kharkiv.

He said late on Sunday: “This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians.”

Russia continues to deny targetting civilians and has accused Ukraine of staging misery to undermine peace talks.

Beaten back in the north, analysts say, Russia will now focus on the east in Donbas region while continuing to target other cities long distance.


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