Russian missiles strike Lviv, killing 7

On Monday, Russian forces started missile assaults on the western city of Lviv and hammered other sites around Ukraine in what looked to be a concerted effort to wear down the country’s defenses in preparation for an all-out assault on the east.

At least seven people were reported killed in Lviv, where plumes of dense black smoke rose above a city that has experienced only occasional strikes in over two months of war and has become a shelter for tens of thousands of inhabitants fleeing fierce combat elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal promised to “fight to the death” in strategically critical Mariupol, where the last known pocket of resistance during the seven-week siege was comprised of Ukrainian forces holed up in a huge steel complex. On Sunday, the Russians issued a surrender-or-die ultimatum to the holdouts.

Maksym Kozytskyy, the governor of the Lviv region, said the Russian missile attacks targeted three military infrastructure locations and an auto repair business. According to him, among the injured was a toddler, and emergency crews battled flames created by the attack.

Lviv is western Ukraine’s largest city and a key transportation hub. It is located around 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Poland, which is a NATO member. The city has historically been a significant route for NATO-supplied guns and other supplies, as well as for foreign warriors supporting the Ukrainian cause.

Russia has been vocal in its opposition to the escalating transfer of Western weaponry to Ukraine, and its Foreign Ministry delivered a formal protest note to the US and its partners last week. According to certain anchors on Russian state television, the supplies amount to direct Western involvement in the struggle against Russia.

Lviv has also been viewed as a comparatively safe haven for elderly, pregnant women, and children fleeing the war. However, a hotel that housed Ukrainians fleeing violence in other areas of the nation was among the severely damaged structures, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi added.

“The horror of war has reached us even in Lviv,” said Lyudmila Turchak, who left Kharkiv with her two children. “There is no longer a safe haven in Ukraine.”

According to locals, a massive explosion also shook Vasylkiv, a town south of Kyiv that is home to a military air base. What was struck was not immediately obvious.

According to military analysts, Russia is stepping up its attacks on weapons factories, railways, and other infrastructure targets throughout Ukraine in order to erode the country’s ability to withstand a major ground offensive in the Donbas, Ukraine’s predominantly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, was also shelled Monday, according to Associated Press journalists on the ground. One of the deceased was a lady who looked to be heading out in the rain to get water. She was discovered resting on the ground, holding a water canister and an umbrella.

Putin reiterated his assertion that the Western sanctions “blitz” on Russia had been ineffective.

He asserted that the West had failed to “provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the financial system, and shop shortages,” yet he admitted a considerable increase in consumer prices in Russia, which he estimated to be 17.5 percent.