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 Lviv on fire, officials said on Tuesday.
More than 400 drones were launched in the middle of the day, Ukraine's air force said, an abrupt change from Russia's usual tactic of launching similarly massive aerial attacks at night during its more than four-year-old war.
The daytime attack came after at least five people were killed and 27 injured in a wave of Russian drone attacks across Ukraine overnight.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the daytime bombardment caused damage in 11 regions, including a residential building in Lviv’s city centre.
Zelensky repeated calls for allies to urgently supply Kyiv with more air defence munitions, which are dwindling as the United States and Europe have shifted their focus to the war in Iran in recent weeks.
“The geopolitical situation has become more complicated due to the war against Iran, and this, unfortunately, bolsters Russia’s confidence,” Zelensky said on Tuesday, adding that “the fundamental circumstances have not changed”.
“Russia is continuing this war and destabilisation in Europe, supporting the Iranian regime with intelligence data and thereby prolonging the war in that region, as well as preparing for new conflicts in the coming years.”
Along with aerial attacks, Moscow has stepped up its ground assaults along the 750-mile front line in the east and south, with 619 attacks in four days in mid-March.
The country is bracing for renewed attacks as weather conditions improve after a winter of Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, causing power and heating cuts, exacerbating the already-bitter Ukrainian winter.
The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Oleksander Syrskyi, said Russian troops had made multiple attempts in recent days to break through defensive lines.
“Fierce fighting unfolded along the entire line of contact,” he wrote on Telegram on Monday.
“The occupiers are attempting to bring up new units and are preparing to continue attacks,” Syrskyi added.
The general said the Russian military is trying to bring up new forces and is relying on poor spring weather conditions, like fog, to reduce the effectiveness of Ukrainian drone and artillery strikes for future attacks.
A Ukrainian military official expects Russia will begin using mobilised military personnel on 1 April, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank.
Ukrainian Southern Defence Forces spokesperson Colonel Vladyslav Voloshyn told Ukrainian outlet Interfax Ukraine that Russia will begin moving all mobilised personnel currently in Crimea to Ukraine.
The ISW also reported that Russia was moving heavy equipment to the frontline in preparation for an intensification of fighting as the weather warms, in what it believes is the beginning of their spring-summer offensive.
Michael Kofman, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington DC, told The Guardian: “Usually there is a Russian wave of mechanised assaults around April, and they once again prove costly and ineffective.”
The latest attacks come after weekend talks between Ukrainian and US delegations in Florida yielded no tangible results.
Poland faced a surge in cyberattacks in 2025, including a major assault on the energy sector
Three arrests after arson attack on drone warehouse supplying Ukraine
Ukraine war live: Unesco World Heritage site damaged in rare daytime bombardment
Poland scrambles fighter jets after Russia launches drone attack on Ukraine
Russia launches first satellites to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink
European leader brands Trump’s Iran war illegal in scathing attack
