Russia bombards Ukrainian city near Polish border, killing 4

Russia launched a deadly barrage of Kalibr cruise missiles at Lviv in western Ukraine, Kyiv’s air defense forces said Thursday morning.

Four people were killed and another 34 were injured in the strikes, Lviv Governor Maksym Kozytskyy said. The city lies just 80 kilometers from Ukraine’s border with Poland.

Although Ukrainian air defense managed to shoot down seven cruise missiles, the remaining three — as well as debris — wrought devastation on a city that hosts thousands of refugees from other cities and towns in Ukraine affected by war.

More than 30 residential buildings and the premises of the local polytechnic university were damaged or destroyed, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi told journalists at the scene.

“This [is] probably the biggest attack on the civil infrastructure of Lviv since the start of [the] full-scale invasion,” Sadovyi said, adding that the level of destruction in the residential sector is so significant that locals have been displaced.

Russia launched the attack from the Black Sea, the Ukrainian Air Forces said.

“Russians launched Kalibr cruise missiles from surface carriers and submarines. Several groups of missiles were recorded, which first headed in a northern direction, using the topography of the area and the channel of the Dnipro River. But then missiles abruptly changed course to the west,” air forces said.