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Lviv struck: what 6 July 2023 showed
Summary
A retrospective on a Kalibr missile attack on western Ukraine and the days of strikes and shelling that preceded it.
What did a missile strike on Lviv say about the reach of Russia's attacks? On 6 July 2023, Russia launched a Kalibr cruise missile attack on the western city from the Black Sea. Ten civilians were killed and 48 others were injured. Ukrainian forces said they shot down seven of the ten missiles.
A pattern of strikes
The attack on Lviv belonged to the 2022–2023 Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure. In the days before it, Ukrainian officials reported further harm to civilians elsewhere in the country.
On 4 July 2023, Russian forces attacked Pervomaiskyi in Kharkiv Oblast with missiles. According to Ukrainian officials, at least 38 civilians were injured and infrastructure was damaged. The same day, two people were killed in Russian shelling of Kherson, and three more were injured in shelling of Chernihiv.
A separate incident in Kyiv
The capital had its own incident on 5 July 2023. At 18:20 local time, an explosion took place at the Shevchenkivskyi District Court in central Kyiv, the city military administration said. Ihor Humenyuk, a defendant at the court and a former member of the Sich Battalion, died after injuring two police officers in an apparent escape attempt.
What the sequence shows
The three days brought attacks in the north, east, south and west of Ukraine. Of the events, the Lviv strike caused the most casualties: ten dead and 48 injured. The fact that seven of ten missiles were reported shot down by Ukrainian forces points to the scale of the launch, in which three missiles still struck the city.
