Deadly Russian aerial attack hits western Ukraine

Ukrainian officials said Wednesday a Russian air attack killed at least seven people and injured more than 30 others in the western city of Lviv.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said in a video posted on Telegram that the attack destroyed a building and damaged more than 50 structures, including schools and homes.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a Russian attack on the city of Kryvyi Rih injured five people and damaged homes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued his calls for Ukraine’s Western partners to provide air defense aid and ease restrictions on what Ukraine can target inside Russia with the weapons they provide.
“Anyone who convinces partners to provide Ukraine with more long-range capabilities, enabling us to respond justly to terror, is working to prevent such Russian terrorist strikes on Ukrainian cities. Terror must be stopped,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine’s military said Russia used 13 missiles and 29 drones in its latest round of aerial assaults, with Ukrainian air defenses shooting down seven of the missiles and 22 of the drones.
Other regions targeted in the attacks included Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn, Ternopil, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Poltava and Sumy.
Wednesday’s attacks came a day after a Russian missile strike killed at least 51 people and injured nearly 300 in the city of Poltava.
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the Tuesday attack as “deplorable.”
“This assault is a tragic reminder of Putin’s ongoing and outrageous attempts to break the will of a free people,” Biden said in a statement.
The U.S. leader also reiterated U.S. pledges to provide Ukraine with the air defenses it needs to protect itself.
Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday it shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region as well as one drone over Kursk and another over the Black Sea. Russian forces also destroyed four unmanned boats in the Black Sea, the ministry said.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.