Ukraine War: Three Killed After Blasts In Lutsk And Lviv

Three people have been killed by Russian missile attacks in the Volyn region of north-western Ukraine, local officials have said.

Several were wounded after a factory in Lutsk was hit, said regional head, Yuriy Poguliaiko.

Air strikes also damaged buildings in the western Lviv region, but there were no deaths, the city’s mayor said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air defence forces said they had destroyed 16 out of at least 28 missiles launched by Russia overnight.

Air raid sirens sounded for two hours in Lviv and Volyn.

Meanwhile, in Lutsk Volyn region’s capital a factory owned by a Swedish company was hit by the strikes.

“We are very sad to confirm that three of our colleagues have been killed,” SKF company spokesman, Carl Bjernstam said.

Homes appeared to have been hit in the city, with local officials saying most of the damage was caused by falling debris from intercepted missiles.

In Lviv, more than 100 buildings were damaged as a result of the overnight attacks, according to the city’s Mayor, Andriy Sadovyi.

A playground in the city was hit by a rocket, Mr. Sadovyi said, which left a 9m (29ft 5in) deep and 20m (65ft 5in) wide crater behind.

He added that four people were injured, but none were in life-threatening conditions.

Describing the incident, local resident Dmytro Ivaschyshyn told said “The children hid in the bathroom They were hysterical, they were shaking.”

Debris from rockets also damaged two farm buildings in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, the deputy head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Oleksiy Kuleba, said.

Closer to the front line, a commercial building was hit in the south-eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk overnight.

Two people were killed and another was injured in Kramatorsk – in the eastern Donetsk region – the city council said in a statement.

He added that villages in the Zaporizhzhia and Cherkasy regions were also hit by strikes, which targeted an educational institution, residential buildings, and a medical facility.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Western Ukraine, which borders Nato-member Poland to its west, has typically seen fewer attacks than the country’s eastern and southern regions.

However, in July, 10 people were killed and many more were injured after a Russian rocket hit an apartment building in Lviv.

BBC/Christopher Ojilere