Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian drone attack on the historic center of Lviv, in western Ukraine, 24 March 2026. EFE/EPA/MYKOLA TYS

Russia attacks Lviv center, including UNESCO site

​Lviv, Ukraine, Mar 24 (EFE).– Russia attacked the center of Lviv, Ukraine, just 70 kilometers from the border with Poland, on Tuesday, leaving at least 22 people injured and damaging a UNESCO World Heritage Site, local authorities reported.

​The attack caused a fire in the upper floors of three-story residential buildings located within the grounds of the 17th-century Church of St. Andrew and the historic Bernardine Monastery, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi revealed on his social media accounts.

​Another drone struck the upper floors of a nine-story residential building in the Sykhiv district, while fragments of an unmanned aerial vehicle fell on a busy street near the city center.

​”So far, 22 people with varying degrees of injury are being treated in Lviv hospitals,” the mayor stated on Telegram.

​The head of the Regional Military Administration, Maksim Kozytsky, noted that critical infrastructure and at least one private residence were also hit in three other parts of the province.

People watch as a fire is being extinguished at the site of a Russian drone attack on the historic center of Lviv, in western Ukraine, 24 March 2026. EFE/EPA/MYKOLA TYS

​”Russia is attacking a crowded city center in broad daylight,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko wrote on X, regarding the attack by Russian-Iranian drones.

​“Only strength, uncompromising sanctions, and decisive action can stop Russia,” she added.

​”Russia has brutally attacked the central part of Lviv, a city of outstanding cultural value and a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga emphasized in a statement.

​He urged UNESCO Director-General Khaled al-Anani “to respond immediately to the crime and adopt a clear stance.”

​”Russia is doing the same thing as the Iranian regime in the Middle East, but in the very heart of Europe. Russia is demonstrating its status as a terrorist state,” Sibiga stressed.

​The minister noted that Russia also “terrorized” other Ukrainian cities that same day, with waves of Shahed drones attacking Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, and other cities, causing numerous injuries and deaths.

​The governor of Ivano-Frankivsk, Svitlana Onishchuk, reported two deaths and four injuries, including a six-year-old child, in the Russian attack.

​According to Natalia Zabolotna, head of the Vinnytsia Region Military Administration, one person died, and 13 others were injured in the attack on this province, according to a statement on social media.

​Additionally, according to the State Emergency Service, a 12-year-old girl was injured in Zhytomyr. EFE

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