Ukraine war: Five people were killed in Lviv in a Russian strike targeting an apartment building in the west of the city

At least five people, including two women, aged 32 and 95, have been killed after a Russian missile hit an apartment building in Lviv, western Ukraine.

Another 34 people were injured in what the mayor of Lviv described as “one of the largest attacks” on the city’s civilian infrastructure.

Lviv regional head Maxim Kozitsky said more than 30 homes had been destroyed.

Russian state television said the building that was bombed was a defense academy.

It described the Ukrainian reports of targeting an apartment building as “propaganda”.

The Russian Defense Ministry earlier issued a statement saying that points of temporary deployment of Ukrainian forces and warehouses storing foreign-made armored vehicles had been bombed using “precision long-range weapons” from the sea.

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed a “concrete” response to the attack by “Russian terrorists” overnight.

Kozitsky wrote on Telegram initially that the youngest victim was 21 and the oldest was 95, but provided an update with corrected details.

He said the victims were Anastasia, 32, Miroslava, 60, Mykhailo, 35, and Irina, 63.

Kozitsky then said that a fifth body of a woman was pulled from the rubble.

He said emergency services were still working to clear the rubble and rescue more people who were feared to be trapped.

“There is a shelter next to the house that was hit by a missile,” he added.

“It’s in good shape and was open at the time of the alarm. But only five people were in the shelter from the entire building. Very disappointing.”

A witness, Olya, told the BBC she was awakened by the first blast, but had not had time to leave the apartment when she heard a second blast.

“The roof is starting to go down,” she said. “My mother was hit immediately, I jumped outside and rubble covered me only knee deep.

“I tried to reach my mother, but I couldn’t, I reached the window, started screaming, and in about half an hour rescuers reached me and took me to the hospital.

“I came back and found that my mother had died, and my neighbors had died. At this point, it seemed like I was the only one who survived from the fourth floor.

Dr. Sasha Dovcik, who works at the Ukrainian Institute in London but is currently in Lviv, described hiding in her bathroom when she heard the air raid sirens.

“This is what we are supposed to do,” she told BBC Newsday. “This is the Ukrainian routine.

“You are supposed to put up two walls and preferably no windows, no glass, between you and the street, and between the outside.

“When the missile, the missile and the Kalibr missile as we now know it hit an apartment building two kilometers away, the walls of the bathroom where I was hiding shook, so the impact was very strong.”

The Ukrainian Air Force accused Russia of firing missiles from the Black Sea.

Posting on Telegram, Ukraine’s armed forces said “seven out of ten Kalibr cruise missiles” were shot down, but said one missile “changed course” to the west and hit Lviv.

The BBC has not been able to verify these allegations.

For months, Russia has carried out deadly missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, often hitting civilian targets and causing widespread power outages.

Last week, 13 people — including children — were killed when a restaurant and shopping center were bombed in Kramatorsk, an eastern city near Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

Although Lviv is located in western Ukraine, and is relatively far from the front lines in southern and eastern Ukraine, it has also suffered from Russian attacks in the past.

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