Russian air strikes have hit two western regions of Ukraine bordering NATO member Poland and other areas, killing three people and wounding more than a dozen, Ukrainian officials say.
Local media said the attacks were the largest air assault on the Lviv region since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
The fatalities were reported in the northwestern region of Volyn. Officials said an industrial enterprise in the regional capital Lutsk was struck in the overnight attack. Several people were also hospitalised, Governor Yuriy Pohulyaiko said.
Fifteen people were also wounded in the Lviv region, Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said. Six missiles damaged dozens of buildings and a kindergarten playground in and around the regional capital. Kozytskyi said the youngest victim was 10-years-old.
Both Volyn and Lviv border NATO member Poland and are hundreds of miles from the front line, where Ukraine's military is fending off Russian troops in the nearly 18-month-old war.
Lviv city had been spared much of Russia's air attacks until July, when seven people were killed by a missile that slammed into a residential building near the historic centre.
The city has generally been seen as a safe haven from the conflict, with some government offices moving there and international NGOs using it as a base. It has also been a transit point for Ukrainian refugees en route to Poland and beyond.
"These are the parts of the country where millions of people are seeking safety and refuge after fleeing the horrors of Russia's invasion," Denise Brown, the United Nations resident co-ordinator in Ukraine, said in a statement.
"Russia's persistent attacks hitting essential infrastructure in populated areas cause immense human suffering."
Ukrainian media reported that according to preliminary information, Tuesday's attack was the largest air assault on the Lviv region since the start of Russia's invasion in Ukraine in February 2022.
At least two people were also wounded in the southeastern city of Dnipro, where Governor Serhiy Lysak said a business enterprise and a sports complex had been hit.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said civilian infrastructure including schools and a hospital had been damaged in a total of eight regions in Tuesday's attacks, which the air force said involved at least 28 cruise missiles.
Sixteen missiles were shot down, the air force said, and no other casualties were immediately reported.
"The daily terror of the Russians has a single goal: to break us, our spirit for fighting," Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential administration, wrote on Telegram. "This will not happen."
Earlier, Russia launched three waves of drones and missiles against the southern Ukraine port city of Odesa.
The Ukrainian air force says it intercepted all the airborne weapons fired during the night-time attacks.
Falling debris from the 15 Shahed drones and eight Kalibr missiles interceptions damaged a residential building, a supermarket and a dormitory of an educational facility in the city, Odesa governor Oleh Kiper said.
Two employees of the supermarket were hospitalised, Kiper said. Video showed a huge blaze at the store during the night and, the next day, the large building’s charred and mangled wreckage.
