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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Sami Quadri

Ukraine: Five wounded after rocket strikes hit western city of Lviv

Refugees flee Russia's invasion of Ukraine at a train station in Lviv

(Picture: REUTERS)

Five people have been wounded after several missiles struck the western city of Lviv in Ukraine.

The airstrikes, 45 minutes from the border of Nato member Poland, shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people forced to flee their hometowns.

The first strike involved two Russian rockets that hit an industrial area in the northeastern outskirts of Lviv and injured five people, the regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said.

A second rocket attack occurred just outside the city hours later and caused three explosions, Kozytskyy told a press briefing as another round of air raid sirens wailed.

Kozytskyy said a man was detained on suspicion of espionage at one of the explosion sites on Saturday after police found that he had recorded a rocket flying toward the target and striking it.

Police also found on his telephone photos of checkpoints in the region, which Kozytskyy said had been sent to two Russian telephone numbers.

It came as US President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a butcher who “cannot remain in power” during a visit to Poland.

In a fiery speech ending a European trip aimed at bolstering Western resolve, Biden framed the war as part of a historic struggle for democratic freedoms.

"For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden said as he ended his speech. The Kremlin dismissed the comment, saying: "That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians."

The White House was forced row back on Biden’s comments, saying the US was not seeking a regime change.

Donate here: Please give what you can to the Evening Standard Ukraine appeal (ES)

.Moscow says the goals for what Putin calls a "special military operation" include demilitarising and "denazifying" its neighbour.

Ukraine and its Western allies calls this a pretext for an unprovoked invasion.

Russia has failed to seize any major Ukrainian city and the conflict has killed thousands of people, sent nearly 3.8 million abroad and driven more than half of Ukraine’s children from their homes, according to the United Nations.

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