Rescuers carry the body of a person found under the debris of a residential building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine, in this handout picture released July 7, 2023. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
Ukraine halted rescue efforts in the western city of Lviv and reported that 10 people had died as a result of a Russian missile strike on a residential structure.
In what he described as the largest attack of the war on civilian infrastructure in Lviv, a missile struck the building on Thursday. According to regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi, rescuers worked through the night to clear wreckage despite heavy rain.
The city is only 70 km (43 miles) from the border with Poland, a NATO and European Union member state, and is far for frontlines.
“As a result of yesterday’s rocket attack on an apartment building in Lviv, 10 people were killed. One person was found at night and one more this morning,” Kozytskyi said on the Telegram messaging app.
City officials declared two days of mourning in honour of the victims.
National police said that 45 people, including three children, had been injured. The attack damaged 35 residential houses, an office complex, a student campus, a school, and several dozens of cars, officials said.
Lviv was home to about 700,000 people before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The population has grown since then because many people have fled to Lviv from fighting and air strikes in other parts of Ukraine.
Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians but has frequently hit residential buildings in air strikes across Ukraine.