Five people injured as missiles rock west Ukrainian city and smoke fills sky

Two Russian missiles have hit the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, sending plumes of black smoke into the air and leaving five people injured, with others urged to stay inside

Russian missile strikes have injured five people in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky.

Locals are being urged to find shelter after the western city was rocked by two blasts, with an air raid warning still in force.

In recent weeks, Lviv has sheltered thousands of refugees who fled Russian troops advancing from the north, east and south of the country.

The city, which is around 30 miles away from the Polish border, was attacked at around 4.30pm (local time) today.

Unconfirmed reports on social media say a fuel depot was hit in the airstrike.

Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said: “There were two missile strikes within Lviv.

“Information that there was an impact on a residential building or other infrastructure facilities has not been confirmed.

“According to preliminary data, five people were injured. The threat of a missile strike is still there.

“Stay in the shelters. Don’t walk down the street. Don’t take pictures of anything.”

The latest attack comes after Russia reportedly decided to shift its focus to completely “liberating” eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

A Russian army chief claimed that the first phase of the country’s invasion of Ukraine is “complete” – but also signalled that the aims of the invasion may be scaling back.

The country’s defence ministry said on Friday it has “liberated” 93 per cent of the territory of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, and 54 per cent of the Donetsk region – the two areas that jointly make up the Donbas.

Sergey Rudskoy, head of the main operational department of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, did not rule out storming Ukrainian cities that had been blockaded in a statement on Friday.

He added that Russia would react immediately to any attempt to close the airspace over Ukraine – something Kyiv has asked NATO to do, but NATO has resisted.

The defence ministry said on Friday that the operation would continue until Russian forces had completed the tasks that had been set, without elaborating.

On Friday, the Russian army updated its losses in Ukraine to 1,351 soldiers, while saying that it had evacuated more than 400,000 civilians.

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Since Russia invaded Ukraine last month, thousands have died in shelling and missile attacks, while millions more have fled the country.

Last week, a theatre in Mariupol, where hundreds including children had been sheltering, was hit by a deadly airstrike, killing what is believed to be at least 300 people.

Despite the bombardment, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday morning that Ukrainian forces are driving back the Russians from around Kyiv.