Missiles hit near Lviv’s airport and Kyiv as US warns of ‘massive consequences’ if Putin is targeting civilians

Missiles have struck near the airport of Ukraine’s western city of Lviv and on the edges of the capital Kyiv as Russia continued its military assault on the country on Friday.

Plumes of smoke were seen rising over the city, which has become a major hub for refugees fleeing the war, after the city was hit by missiles said by Ukraine to have bee fired from the Black Sea.

Mayor Andriy Sadovy said several missiles struck an aircraft maintenance facility, destroying buildings but causing no casualties. The city has escaped significant fighting so far.

Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Lviv shelling and evacuation

Earlier, television station Ukraine 24 said at least three explosions had been heard in the city.

The early morning barrage of missiles on the outskirts of Lviv were the closest strike yet to the centre of the city, which has become a crossroads for people fleeing from other parts of Ukraine and for others entering to deliver aid or fight.

Ukrainian air force’s western command said on Facebook that the missiles were launched from the Black Sea, but two of the six that were launched were shot down.

An explosion was also heard and smoke seen in the northern part of the capital Kyiv early on Friday.

Reports also emerged of deadly shelling in eastern Ukraine as Russia pressed its attack.

A multi-storey teaching building was shelled on Friday morning in the eastern city of Kharkiv, killing one person, wounding 11 and trapping one person in the rubble, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.

Shells also hit the eastern city of Kramatorsk, killing two people and wounding six, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in an online post.

Russia has relied heavily on missiles and shelling to subdue Ukraine’s forces but has yet to secure any of its 10 largest cities since it launched its invasion on February 24.

World leaders have called for an investigation of the Kremlin’s attacks on civilian targets, including airstrikes on schools, hospitals and residential areas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said American officials were evaluating potential war crimes. He warned there will be “massive consequences” if the intentional targeting of civilians by Russia is confirmed.

In city after city, hospitals, schools and buildings where people sought safety from the bombardment have been attacked. Rescue workers searched for survivors in the ruins of a theatre that served as a shelter when it was blown apart by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol.

And in Merefa, near the northeast city of Kharkiv, at least 21 people were killed when Russian artillery destroyed a school and a community center, a local official said.

In the northern city of Chernihiv, dozens of bodies were brought to the morgue in just one day.

The United Nations political chief, Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo, also called for an investigation into civilian casualties, reminding the UN Security Council on Thursday that international humanitarian law bans direct attacks on civilians.

She said many of the daily attacks battering Ukrainian cities “are reportedly indiscriminate” and involve the use of “explosive weapons with a wide impact area.”

Ms DiCarlo said the devastation in Mariupol and Kharkiv “raises grave fears about the fate of millions of residents of Kyiv and other cities facing intensifying attacks.”

In Mariupol, hundreds of civilians were reportedly taking shelter in a grand, columned theatre in the city’s centre when it was hit Wednesday by Russian forces.

More than a day after the airstrike, there were no reports of deaths. With communications disrupted across the city and movement difficult because of shelling and other fighting, there were conflicting reports on whether anyone had emerged from the rubble.

Satellite imagery on Monday from Maxar Technologies showed huge white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the theater spelling out “CHILDREN” in Russian - “DETI” - to alert warplanes to those inside.

“We hope and we think that some people who stayed in the shelter under the theatre could survive,” Petro Andrushchenko, an official with the mayor’s office, told The Associated Press.