Russian drone attack damages UNESCO site in Lviv, Ukraine; 26 injured across city

Part of a UNESCO World Heritage site in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv was damaged in a Russian drone attack, according to local officials. At least 26 people were injured across the city.

The attack happened Tuesday as Russia launched a large-scale drone assault on Ukraine. In Lviv, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said 26 people were hospitalized and that no deaths were reported.

Sadovyi said a damaged building at 3 Cathedral Square is a monument of national importance and that 17 apartments were affected. BBC News reported the site was the 16th-century Bernardine monastery, part of Lviv’s UNESCO World Heritage area in the city center.

Footage from the scene showed a drone striking a residential building near the monastery, causing a large fire that heavily damaged it.

BBC News reported that Russia launched 948 drones across Ukraine over a 24-hour period, the largest aerial attack over a single day since the war began.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces used Iranian Shahed drones enhanced by Russia. He said one of the drones hit a church in Lviv and that a maternity hospital was damaged in Ivano-Frankivsk, another city in western Ukraine.

“If we take into account that Russia is also helping the Iranian regime to carry out strikes across the region, the conclusion becomes self-evident,” Zelenskyy said. “Without additional and strong pressure on Russia, without significant Russian losses, those in Moscow will not develop any desire to back down from the war and somehow come to terms with peace again.”