Russian missiles strike west Ukraine, sea-drone production facility

Russia has launched a massive air attack on Ukraine's western region of Lviv and the northwestern region of Volyn – bordering Poland – striking buildings as reported by local officials, amid reports of another Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian drone production plant.

Three people were killed and several hospitalized in Lutsk district of the Volyn region after a business enterprise was struck by a missile, said Yuriy Pohulyaiko, governor the Volyn region of which Lutsk is the administrative center, in a post on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday.

Local Ukrainian officials claimed that 16 of at least 28 Russian missiles were shot down by air defense, underlining that no casualties were inflicted in the missile attack on Lviv, although more than 100 residential houses were damaged, 500 windows broken and a kindergarten playground was destroyed.

"Many missiles were shot down, but there were also hits in Lviv," city mayor Andriy Sadovyi said in a post on Telegram, adding that orders were issued to evacuate at least one burning apartment building.

While Ukraine's Air Force insisted that they had destroyed most of the incoming Russian air and sea-based missiles, it was not immediately clear how many missiles targeted Lviv and Volyn, according to wire reports.

Ukrainian news outlets also cited “preliminary information” to report that the early Tuesday missile attack was the largest air assault on the Lviv region since the outset of Russia's “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022.

This is while international news outlets have emphasized that they have not yet been able to immediately confirm the missile strikes on western Ukraine.

The development came amid recent warnings by Russian officials about retaliating Ukraine’s repeated drone attacks on non-military targets in Moscow, Crimea and a number of border regions in the country.

Russia strikes Ukraine in retaliation for Crimea attack: Defense Ministry

The Russian military conducted retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian facilities used to prepare terrorist attacks on Crimea, according to the Defense Ministry.

Russia missiles hit Ukrainian drone boat production plants

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry also declared on Tuesday that their Armed Forces had carried out a missile strike on Ukrainian maritime drone manufacturing facilities and storage plants Monday night, Sputnik News reported.

The targets were hit with long-range ship-launched missiles, the ministry added in a statement, describing the drones built at the facilities as “essentially unmanned boats loaded with explosives,” noting that they were used by Ukraine to commit “terrorist attacks.”

The ministry further emphasized that the missile strike was successful and that all targets had been destroyed, the report added, though it did not mention where the attack took place.

The missile strike came after Ukrainian forces used such sea drones to wage an attack on the bridge across the Kerch Strait, which links the Crimean Peninsula with Russia's mainland.

Although the drone attack did not inflict serious damage to the bridge, it killed two civilians and injured another.

Ukrainian forces also used two maritime drones with explosive payloads to target Russian naval vessels in the port of Novorossiysk earlier this month.  

Russia troops repel counterattacks in NE Ukraine

Russian military authorities also announced on Tuesday that their troops had repelled five Ukrainian counterattacks in the past 24 hours in Kupyansk area of northeast Ukraine.

"In order to regain lost positions in the Kupyansk area, the enemy launched five counterattacks on our positions by units of the 14th independent mechanized brigade and the 95th independent airborne assault brigade,” said the spokesman for Russia’s battlegroup West, Sergey Zybinsky, as quoted in a TASS report. “All counterattacks were thwarted by the group's artillery. The enemy's losses amounted to up to a platoon of infantry."

Zybinsky further asserted that the Ukrainian army’s assault groups of the 44th independent mechanized brigade twice attacked the positions of the Russian troops near the village of Novoselovskoye, adding: "The enemy's advance was detected in time. The [Russian] units inflicted fire damage from towed howitzers Hyacinth-B and Msta-S. All attacks were repulsed. Up to one platoon was destroyed."

According to the spokesman, the crews of the battlegroup’s Ka-52 and Mi-35 attack helicopters also carried out 12 air strikes on staging areas of Ukraine’s 14th and 32nd separate mechanized brigades and territorial defense units near the settlements of Sinkova, Stelmakhovka and Kislovka.

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