WAR HEADS WEST
Vladimir Putin pushes war even further west after missiles batter Lviv
FOUR Russian cruise missiles yesterday slammed into a strategic airfield in the city of Lviv as Vladimir Putin pushed his war west.
The warheads — weighing a combined 1,600kg and fired from more than 400 miles away — represented the first attack on the historic city.
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It had been considered a relatively safe haven for diplomats, aid workers, refugees and journalists.
Britain’s Armed Forces minister James Heappey said the strike showed Russia was now widening its bloody assault on Ukraine.
Air raid sirens sounded across Lviv shortly after 6am as the Kh-555 cruise missiles zeroed in from Russian bombers over the Black Sea.
Two were shot down by air defence systems but four smashed into two repair plants for aircraft and buses, less than four miles from the city centre.
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A fierce blaze broke out and fire engines and ambulances raced to the scene. But a major loss of life was avoided because staff had left minutes before. Amazingly just one person was injured.
One woman worker told The Sun: “I was called by my boss this morning and said just to wait here. This is obviously terrifying for everyone in the city but we have known for a while that the airport would be a target.”
A strike at an army base on Sunday, which killed 35 Ukrainian soldiers, was closer to the Polish border. But yesterday’s attack was seen as a significant development.
Though routes used to ship Western military aid to the front line are top secret, Lviv is considered a crucial staging post. It is also where the British Embassy is now located.
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With a population of 720,000, Lviv is the seventh-largest city in Ukraine and the biggest in the west of the country.
More than 200,000 refugees driven from their homes are also now in temporary accommodation there.
It has also become a makeshift home to the world’s media covering the war and for hundreds of foreign diplomats who have fled embassies in stricken Kyiv. In a poignant scene outside Lviv city council building, empty baby strollers were placed to highlight the number of children killed.
Meanwhile two people died and six were injured when buildings in the eastern city of Kramatorsk were shelled.
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And in Kharkiv, shells hit Barabashova market — one of the largest in the world. One firefighter was killed and another injured raced when their crews came under more shelling.
Elsewhere in the city one person was killed and 11 injured when a college was hit.
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