At least three people have been killed in a Russian missile attack on a residential apartment block in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The attack is one of the largest on the city's civilian infrastructure since the start of Russia's invasion last year. Emergency workers were still busy trying to clear debris and pull out the dead, while about 60 apartments and 50 cars were damaged in the attack, according to Lviv’s Mayor Andriy Sadovyi.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack and offered his condolences to the relatives of those killed, promising a “strong” response “to the enemy”. The reports of damage and civilian deaths in Lviv followed air raid alerts across Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday morning and reports of cruise missiles entering Ukrainian airspace. Sadovyi had reported a series of explosions in his city, and urged people not to publish videos of air defence operations “nor the consequences of the shelling”.

Russia has launched waves of drone and missile attacks across Ukraine since its invasion in February 2022, though the Lviv region had been largely peaceful. Ukraine has recently bolstered its air defence systems with Western-supplied weapons and the number of Russian missiles and drones breaking through has diminished. However, the spokesman for Ukraine’s air forces, Yuriy Ignat, recently said that newly supplied air defence systems were still insufficient to cover the entire country against Russian attacks.