Russia fires nearly 1,000 drones against Ukraine in one of the war’s largest attacks
Fire and smoke rise above the city center following a Russian drone attack in Lviv
By Daria Tarasova-Markina, Hira Humayun, Tim Lister, and Darya Tarasova-Markina
(CNN) — Russia launched one of its largest attacks on Ukraine in recent months, firing nearly 1,000 drones over the past 24 hours, according to the Ukrainian military.
More than 550 of those drones were launched at targets across the country in a rare and deadly daytime assault, the military said.
The attacks left at least 40 people in the country injured – including five children, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
At least two people in the western Ukrainian oblast of Ivano-Frankivsk have been killed, the region’s governor Svitlana Onyshchuk said. The victims included a National Guard soldier and his newborn daughter, according to Ivano-Frankivsk mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv.
Four others, including a 6-year-old, were injured. And in Vinnytsia, a 59-year-old man was killed while 11 others were injured, according to Mayor Serhiy Morgunov.
“This was one of the largest attacks over the course of the day,” with drones directed towards central and western Ukraine, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ignat said.
‘You can’t get used to this’
In Lviv, at least 22 people were wounded in the attack, the city’s mayor Andriy Sadoviy said.
The air force said at least 15 hits were identified and at least 541 drones were shot down or neutralized.
Residential buildings and city centers in the country were hit, including a maternity hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk that sustained damage, according to Ukrainian officials.
A church building in part of Lviv’s Bernadine Monastery Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was also hit, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, head of Lviv region military administration.
“An architectural monument of national significance—the Bernardine Monastery Complex—has been damaged,” Kozytskyi posted to Telegram, adding that experts have yet to determine the extent of the damage.
“It is located within the historic district of Lviv, a site listed on the International List of Cultural Heritage Sites under enhanced protection,” Kozytskyi said. “The fire has engulfed the buildings adjacent to the complex.”
The church is part of the UNESCO site “Lviv – the Ensemble of the Historic Center.”
“Iranian ‘Shaheds,’ modernized by Russia, are striking the church in Lviv – this is an absolute perversion, and only someone like Putin could take pleasure in it,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. “The scale of this attack clearly shows that Russia has no real intention of ending this war.”
Meanwhile in Russia, a 55-year-old man was killed and 13 others injured in Ukrainian drone attacks in the Kursk region, according to Acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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CNN’s Nina Subkhanberdina contributed to this report.
