KYIV – A Russian strike on Ukraine’s western city of Lviv on Wednesday killed seven people, including three children, the interior minister said.
The attack comes a day after missiles hit the central city of Poltava in one of the single deadliest bombardments of Russia’s invasion, which has stretched into its third year.
“In total, seven people died in Lviv, including three children,” Internal Affairs Minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram, upping the previously reported toll.
Sirens rang out over the city of Lviv before sunrise on Wednesday, according to Mayor Andriy Sadovy, who advised people to take shelter as air defenses worked to down a barrage of missiles.
The missile attack wounded 40 people, the prosecutor’s office said, and damaged residential buildings in the city’s historic centre as well as schools and medical facilities.
President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced what he called “Russian terrorist strikes on Ukrainian cities.”
He also repeated calls for Western partners to provide Ukraine with long-range weapons to “respond justly” to the attacks.
The western city of Lviv has largely been spared the worst of the fighting over the two and a half years of war, but last week, Russian strikes targeted its energy infrastructure causing outages, according to officials.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has submitted his resignation, the speaker of parliament said on Wednesday, as part of a major government reshuffle.
The announcement came a day after several other ministers resigned in a significant government reset two-and-a-half years into Russia’s invasion.
Kuleba — the face of Ukrainian diplomacy during the war — is the most senior of the ministers to offer to step down.
“The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine received a letter of resignation from the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba,” Ruslan Stefanchuk said on social media, adding that parliament would vote on the resignation request soon.
The 43-year-old has held the post since 2020 and since Russia’s 2022 attack travelled the world to advocate for Western support for Kyiv and sanctions on Moscow.
On Tuesday, several ministers handed their resignations, including the ministers of justice, strategic industries and environmental protection.
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