Two western Ukrainian cities hit by air strikes

KYIV: Two cities in western Ukraine were hit by air strikes overnight, local officials said early on Tuesday.

Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi said “many missiles were shot down”, but that “residential buildings got hit” in the strike.

“There is a fire on the upper floors. We are evacuating people. All services are on site,” he said on Telegram.

Lviv has mostly been spared the daily bombardments that have hit other parts of Ukraine.

But in July, 10 people were killed in what Sadovyi said was the biggest Russian missile attack on the city’s civilian infrastructure since the invasion.

About 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Lviv, in Lutsk, mayor Igor Polishchuk said “one of the industrial enterprises in (the city) was hit”.

“All emergency services are on site,” he said.

The strike wounded two people, according to Yuriy Poguliaiko, governor of the Volyn region, of which Lutsk is the capital.

“Air defence forces worked in the region during the night air alert. But, unfortunately, we had a ‘strike’ at one of the industrial enterprises in the regional centre. Currently, we know of two injured people,” he said on Telegram.

Lutsk is less than 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Ukraine’s border with Poland.

In March last year, four Ukrainian soldiers were killed and six wounded in Russian strikes on the Lutsk military airport.