Five people were injured after ‘several’ cruise missile blasts shook Lviv, as Putin opened a terrifying new war front near the NATO border

RUSSIAN missile strikes shook Ukraine’s largest western city today, less than 24 hours after tinpot dictator Putin vowed to concentrate his army’s efforts in the east.

Officials say at least five people were injured in the blasts in Lviv, which is only 45 miles from the border with Nato member Poland.

Following two massive explosions, residents were urged to seek shelter. During the attack, a fuel storage facility was set on fire.

Following the initial strikes, three more explosions were recorded, according to the region’s governor.

As the city’s air raid sirens were activated, thick black smoke was seen rising from a TV tower.

Throughout the war, missile strikes have targeted TV towers in other Ukrainian cities.

Lviv, which had been a safer refugee destination, had been largely spared the bombardment that has devastated cities across Ukraine since Putin ordered his troops into the country on February 24.

However, several rockets struck the city near the NATO border today, while Joe Biden was in Poland’s capital.

Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, said the storage facility was on fire as a result of the shelling, and that the rockets that hit the city were fired from Sevastopol, Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

For hours, thick black smoke rose from the first explosion site on the city’s northeastern outskirts before a second set of explosions was reported.

According to the regional governor, Maxym Kozytsky, at least five people were injured in the first attack. He reported three more explosions outside the city hours later.

He said the strikes hit a defence facility and a fuel depot, but no one was killed.

Yesterday, humiliated tyrant Putin vowed that his troops would concentrate on “liberating” pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donbas region.

However, Markian Lubkivskyi, an adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, expressed scepticism about the claims.

The strikes in Lviv occurred during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden to Poland’s capital.

Speaking in front of hundreds of Polish elected officials, students, and US embassy personnel at Warsaw’s Royal Castle, he declared that the West is “more united than ever.”

“This battle will not be won in days or months,” Biden said. We must brace ourselves for a long battle. Warsaw has stood where liberty has been challenged and liberty has triumphed for generations.

“Russian forces have met their match with brave and stiff Ukrainian resistance. Rather than driving Nato apart, the West is now more stronger and united than it has ever been.”