A rare Russian daytime drone attack on Ukraine has killed at least three people, wounded 30 and set a building in the centuries-old centre of western Lviv aflame, officials have said, following an overnight bombardment that killed five people across the country.
Over 400 drones were launched at Ukraine in the middle of the day, Ukraine’s air force said, an abrupt change from Russia’s usual tactic of launching similarly mᴀssive aerial attacks at night during its more than four-year-old war.
Video footage posted online showed a drone crashing into an old building next to a church in the historic centre of Lviv, some 60 kilometres from the Polish border.
UNESCO site hit, casualties mount.

In another western Ukrainian city, Ivano-Frankivsk, two people were killed and four injured, according to regional Governor Svitlana Onyshchuk.
City mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said windows at a maternity hospital had been blown out, but that nobody in the hospital was harmed.
Vinnytsia Governor Natalia Zabolotna said on Telegram that one person had been killed and 11 wounded in her region.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said a residential building was hit by a second drone, while debris from a third drone fell in a street.
“Russia is attacking a crowded city centre in broad daylight,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X.
Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site around the 17th century St Andrew’s Church had been damaged.
Air defences also engaged drones throughout the day near Kyiv.
Ukraine’s air force posted warnings on social media of drones overhead in more than a dozen areas across the country.
Officials in Vinnytsia and Ternopil, both several hundred kilometres from the frontline, said explosions were heard in their cities and residents had been told to remain in shelters.
Overnight attack.

The daytime strikes came after a wave of overnight strikes that killed five people across Ukraine and caused disruption to power supplies in Moldova.
Two people were killed and 12 injured, including a five-year-old child, in the attack near the eastern city of Poltava, a regional official said.
Ukraine downed 541 out of 556 attack drones launched by Russia in an unusual daytime attack, Kyiv’s air force said on Tuesday, local time.
Since Monday evening, Russia has used a record 948 drones against the country, the air force said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said damage had been reported in 11 regions, and issued a new appeal for allies to supply Kyiv with air defence munitions.
He has repeatedly warned that Kyiv, whose main supplier of air defence systems against ballistic missiles is the United States, will face a deficit of missiles while Washington is focused on the US-Israeli war on Iran.

“It’s important to continue supporting Ukraine. It’s important that all agreements on air defence are implemented on time,” he said on X.
Moldovan Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi said the Isaccea–Vulcanesti power line, Moldova’s key link with Europe, had been affected.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu wrote on X: “Alternative routes are in place, but the situation remains fragile. Russia alone bears responsibility.”