Russian strikes hit Lviv in west Ukraine

Russian missiles struck near Lviv’s airport in the far west of Ukraine Friday, extending the war to a region left relatively unscathed, as China came under US pressure to restrain its Kremlin allies.

Ambulance and police vehicles raced to the scene of the early-morning strike on an aircraft repair plant near the border of NATO member Poland — which said it has seen more than two million refugees cross over from Ukraine.

Motorists were turned away at checkpoints and a thick pall of smoke billowed over the airport, an AFP reporter saw. Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi said the maintenance plant had been destroyed.

Located 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the border, Lviv had until now largely escaped military strikes from Russian forces, and earlier in the war had become a staging post for foreign diplomats fleeing Kyiv.

“There have been air raid alarms here every morning, but now the strikes are actually landing,” Valentin Vovchenko, 82, told AFP.

“We fled Kyiv because of the attacks but now they’ve started to hit here,” he said.

As President Vladimir Putin’s three-week-old ground offensive has stalled under fierce Ukrainian resistance, Moscow has increasingly turned to indiscriminate air and long-range strikes.

In the besieged southern city of Mariupol, rescue workers have been searching desperately for any survivors buried beneath the rubble of a bombed-out theatre, amid fears that hundreds may be trapped.

Russia said Friday its troops and their separatist allies were fighting in the centre of the strategic port city.

Before dawn broke, air raid alarms had rung in cities across Ukraine.

Authorities in Kyiv said one person was killed early Friday when a downed Russian rocket struck a residential building in the capital’s northern suburbs. They said a school and playground were also hit.

Russians lack ‘basic essentials’

In the hard-pressed eastern city of Kharkiv, Russian strikes demolished the six-storey building of a higher-education institution, killing one person and leaving another trapped in the wreckage, officials said.

In an update on the devastating invasion, Britain’s defence ministry said Russia was struggling to resupply its forward troops “with even basic essentials such as food and fuel”.

“Incessant Ukrainian counterattacks are forcing Russia to divert large number of troops to defend their own supply lines. This is severely limiting Russia’s offensive potential,” it said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine’s resistance had killed thousands of invading troops, as he addressed Russian mothers in his latest video message.

“We didn’t want this war. We only want peace,” he said. “And we want you to love your children more than you fear your authorities.”

In a call later Friday, US President Joe Biden will warn his counterpart Xi Jinping that China will face “costs” for “any actions it takes to support Russia’s aggression”, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

After accusing Putin of being a “war criminal”, Biden hopes China will use “whatever leverage they have to compel Moscow to end this war”, the top US diplomat said.

“Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime,” Blinken added in the wake of the Mariupol theatre attack.

More than 24 hours after the once-gleaming whitewashed Drama Theatre was hollowed out by a Russian strike, the number of dead, injured or trapped remained unclear.