LVIV : Russian forces launched missile attacks on the western city of Lviv and pounded other targets across Ukraine on Monday in an intensified bid to wear down the country’s defenses ahead of an all-out assault on the east.
At least seven people were reported killed in Lviv, where plumes of thick black smoke rose over a city that had become a relative haven for people fleeing intense fighting farther east during almost two months of war.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, meanwhile, vowed to “fight absolutely to the end” in strategically vital Mariupol, where the last known pocket of resistance in the seven-week siege consisted of Ukrainian fighters holed up in a sprawling steel plant laced with tunnels. The holdouts ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from the Russians on Sunday.
The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyy, said the Russian missile strikes hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto mechanic shop. He said the wounded included a child, and emergency teams battled fires caused by the attack.
APN
