Russian forces shelled a military base in western Ukraine on Sunday March 13, near the Polish border, an area hitherto relatively spared from the conflict, Ukrainian authorities said. “The occupiers carried out an airstrike on the International Center for the Maintenance of Peace and Security. According to preliminary information, they fired eight missilesthe Lviv regional administration said in a statement.
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This military base is located in Yavoriv, about forty kilometers northwest of Lviv and about twenty kilometers from the border with Poland, a NATO member country. It has served in recent years as a training ground for Ukrainian forces under the supervision of foreign instructors, notably American and Canadian.
The Yavoriv base was also one of the main centers used for joint military exercises between Ukrainian and NATO forces. Foreign troops left Ukraine shortly before the start of the Russian invasion. It is also on this base that part of the military aid delivered to Ukraine by Western countries arrives.
The Ukrainian army also reported on Twitter that the base had been targeted by a strike on Sunday, without initially reporting casualties. The Ukrainian Air Force Command Center further stated on its Facebook page that two cruise missiles fired from the southeast, “probably from the Sea of Azov or the Black Sea“, had been intercepted by its anti-aircraft defense forces. AFP, whose reporter in Lviv did not hear any explosions, could not immediately verify these claims.
The strike reported on Sunday comes as Russia threatened on Saturday to target Western arms supplies to Ukraine, including mentioning man-portable air defense systems and anti-tank missile systems. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that he had “warned the United States” that “convoysof armaments became for Moscowlegitimate targets“.
The Lviv region has so far been relatively spared from the violence. Many people displaced by the Russian invasion have flocked there and several countries have also moved their embassies there, deeming the city of Lviv safer than kyiv. Furthermore, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, a town located about 100 kilometers south of Lviv, affirmed that a “hithad targeted the airport of this locality early on Sunday. “The explosions this morning are due to a strike on the airport. We are in the process of establishing all the factsRuslan Martsinkiv said on his Facebook page.