Russian forces fired more than two dozen missiles across Ukraine early Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said, in assaults that hit two cities near the country’s western edge far from the front lines and killed at least three people.
Ukraine’s Air Force said that 28 cruise missiles, 16 of which were intercepted, had been fired around 4 a.m., setting off air alerts across the country. At an industrial facility in the city of Lutsk in the northwest, about 55 miles from the border with Poland, at least three people were killed and several more were hospitalized, according to the mayor, Ihor Polishchuk.
Also badly hit was the city of Lviv, where a missile landed in the yard of a kindergarten and near apartment blocks, sparking a fire and damaging more than 100 homes, according to the mayor, Andriy Sadovyi. The ceiling of a supermarket in the region collapsed because of debris from an intercepted missile, said Maksym Kozytskyi, the regional military administrator.
Western Ukraine has had some reprieve from Russian attacks. Some cities, particularly Lviv, have become havens for people migrating west to get away from the fighting. But Russia has periodically shattered that sense of security with attacks that kill and injure civilians.
In recent weeks, Russian attacks have been concentrated on targets in and around the Black Sea, with tensions escalating over the sea and Russia’s renewed blockade of ships traveling to Ukrainian ports. Over the weekend, Russia fired warning shots and boarded a freighter registered to the small Pacific island nation of Palau, adding a new level of uncertainty.