ROCKET BLITZ
Five injured after ‘several’ cruise missile blasts rock Lviv as Putin opens chilling new war frontier near Nato border
RUSSIAN missile strikes have rocked Ukraine's largest western city today - less than 24 hours after tinpot despot Putin vowed to focus his army on the east.
Officials claim at least five people were injured in the blasts in Lviv, which is just 45 miles from Nato member Poland’s border.
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Locals were urged to find shelter after two huge blasts. A fuel storage facility was set ablaze in the attack.
The region's governor confirmed that three further explosions were recorded following the initial strikes.
Thick black smoke was seen rising from a TV tower as the city’s air raid sirens were activated.
TV towers across Ukraine's other cities have also been a target of missile strikes throughout the war.
Lviv - which had been a safer destination for refugees - had so far been largely spared bombardment that has devastated cities across Ukraine since Putin ordered his troops into the country on February 24.
But today several rockets struck the city close to the NATO border while Joe Biden was visiting the capital of Poland.
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Lviv's mayor Andriy Sadovyi said the storage facility was on fire as a result of the shelling as he claimed rockets that hit the city were fired from Sevastopol in Crimea - which Russia annexed in 2014.
Thick black smoke rose from the first blast site on the city's northeastern outskirts for hours before a second set of explosions were reported.
The regional governor, Maxym Kozytsky, said on Facebook at least five people had been injured in the first attack. Hours later, he reported three more explosions outside the city.
He said a defence facility and a fuel depot were hit, but that no one had died in the strikes.
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Humiliated tyrant Putin yesterday vowed his troops would focus on “liberating” pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donbas region.
But adviser to Ukraine’s ministry of defence Markian Lubkivskyi said he was sceptical over the claims.
The strikes in Lviv came as US President Biden visited Poland's capital.
Speaking at at Warsaw's Royal Castle before hundreds of Polish elected officials, students and US embassy staff, he said the West "is more united than ever".
Biden said: "This battle will not be won in days, or months either. We need to steel ourselves for a long fight ahead. For generations, Warsaw has stood where liberty has been challenged and liberty has prevailed.
"Russian forces have met their match with brave and stiff Ukrainian resistance. Rather than driving Nato apart, the West is now more stronger and united than it has ever been."
It comes as...
- At least 300 people died after a theatre in Mariupol was shelled last week, Ukrainian authorities have claimed
- A terrified Russian soldier has revealed they expected the war to be over in two weeks, in an intercepted phone call to his gran
- In a further blow to Putin, Ukraine has reportedly pushed Russian troops out of the capital Kyiv
- US President Joe Biden has warned Nato WILL respond if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine
- A Ukrainian refugee has given a heartbreaking account of how she dodged bodies as Putin's shells landed around her
- Putin's alleged secret family has come to light as he continues his brutal invasion of Ukraine
It comes after President Zelensky said 16,000 Russian troops have been killed so far in Ukraine as his soldiers fight to retake the first city that Putin seized.
The Ukrainian leader, 44, said his troops had delivered "powerful blows" to Moscow’s forces around Kyiv and urged the Kremlin to negotiate an end to the bloody war.
But he vowed he would never let any Ukrainian territory be handed over to tyrant Putin, 69.
Mr Zelensky also warned that Russia's bragging about its nuclear power is fuelling a dangerous arms race.
It came as adviser to Ukraine's ministry of defence Markian Lubkivskyi predicted troops could take back southern port city Kherson today.
Mr Lubkivskyi said: "I believe that today the city will be fully under the control of Ukrainian armed forces.
"We have finished in the last two days the operation in the Kyiv region so other armed forces are now focused on the southern part trying to get free Kherson and some other Ukrainian cities."
Kherson, at the mouth of the Dnieper river, fell earlier this month in Russia's first major gain of the war.
But a US defence official said Russian control in the strategic city appeared to be waning as Ukrainian troops fight back.
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The official said: "We would argue that Kherson is actually contested territory again.
"We can't corroborate exactly who is in control of Kherson but the point is, it doesn't appear to be as solidly in Russian control as it was before."
They added that if Ukraine did regain control, Russian troops around Mikolaiv would end up "sandwiched" between defence forces.
The official said: "That would make it very, very difficult for them to make any kind of ground movement on Odesa.
"That would be a significant development, no question about that, in terms of the southern part of the war."
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Ukraine is also said to be close to major victories in the battle for Kyiv as British defence officials said there was now a "realistic possibility" that the towns of Bucha and Irpin would be encircled by Ukrainian forces.
The Ministry of Defence said Russian troops are facing "considerable supply and morale issues" and it was unlikely they would be able to regroup and take the capital.
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