Missiles shatter Lviv calm, and an opera

A safe haven providing passage for people seeking to enter or leave Ukraine, the city of Lviv was jolted out of its lull on Saturday afternoon as at least five Russian missiles struck just east of the city, leaving five people wounded.
The first of the blasts hit around 4.45 pm, minutes after a public opera performance on in front of the Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre and featuring a singer from Kharkiv – the city that has been at the receiving end of Russian invasion – was cut short air sirens.

 
The reaction was leisurely, with the city mostly untouched the violence now treating these sirens as false alarms. But then came the blast. Even as some people moved to the shelters, others rallied around, with shouts of “Glory Ukraine”.
At the Ukraine Media Centre, set up in the top two floors of a three-storey bar the government, the excitement Saturday was all about the lifting of an alcohol ban, in place in Lviv since the start of the war. The muffled bangs in quick succession in the evening caused a surprise. The severity of the attack only struck when a dark plume of smoke rose over buildings to the east, and continued to hang there for hours, visible from all around the city.

There was speculation regarding whether a telecommunication tower or an oil depot had been hit, both located just 2 km from the bar.
With more missile strikes later in the evening, Lviv’s mayor Andriy Sadovyi tweeted: “We are waiting for information from the Military Adminration. Please do not share photos / videos. Stay in the shelters.”
Head of Lviv region’s military adminration Maksym Kozytsky confirmed the missile attacks. On his official Telegram channel, he posted: “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.” He also said that the threat of a missile strike was still on, asking people to stay indoors or in shelters.
There was no word about the kind of missiles used or the actual targets.

But there was no doubt regarding what the blasts signified, being the closest the Russians had come to attacking Lviv. They signalled that Moscow was not averse to hitting high-value targets within the city – notwithstanding its location so close to the NATO borders, and notwithstanding the number of foreign journals stationed there to cover the war.
At 70 km, Lviv is much further from the Polish border than the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, also called Yavoriv military base, which was attacked Russian missiles on March 13. But given the importance of the city, the missile hits Saturday marked the march of the war into western Ukraine.

Russia also seemed to be sending a signal further west, with the attacks coming just before US President Joe Biden delivered a speech in Poland.
The last strike near Lviv was on March 18, when missiles had hit the airport just outside the city and targeted an aircraft repair plant, with no casualties.
With war now finally at the doorstep, the people of Lviv though seemed resigned and stoic. Only a few sought out the safety of shelters, the others soon resumed what they were doing, ignoring the first responders rushing towards the spot.