At least nine people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on Sunday morning at a Ukrainian military base in Yavoriv, less than 25 kilometres from the Ukrainian-Polish border. In addition, 57 were also injured, the governor of the Lviv region announced.
According to the authorities, the so-called Center for International Peace Surveillance and Security was hit by 30 missiles. Earlier reports spoke of eight missiles. The centre is a training facility of the Ukrainian army, where soldiers are trained for peacekeeping missions. The target of the attack would have been a military unit stationed there, and an army spokesman told the Ukrainian news agency Interfax.
According to a tweet by Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, “foreign instructors” work at the base. It is not known whether they were present on Sunday. Most countries withdrew their military instructors from Ukraine before the Russian invasion of February 24. In 2014, the United States and fourteen other NATO countries conducted another military exercise in Yavoriv.
Yavoriv is located about 50 kilometres west of the city of Lviv, where many refugees gather to cross the border into Poland. According to local media, Ivano-Frankove airport, halfway between Lviv and Yavoriv, was also shelled. Also, in Lviv itself, the air raid siren sounded in the night from Saturday to Sunday. In addition, explosions could be heard on the outskirts of town.
It is the first time that the violence of war has reached this area and is so close to the Polish border. A German news agency DPA correspondent reported that the explosions could be heard in Przemysl, Poland, about 60 kilometres from Yavoriv.
