LVIV   -  A Russian strike on the historic centre of Lviv in western Ukraine has killed seven people including three children, officials said Wednesday, a day after a particularly bloody attack in the central city of Poltava in which dozens died. Moscow has stepped up its aerial attacks after Ukraine’s offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, which caught Russian troops by surprise.

The overnight attacks triggered renewed calls from Ukrainian officials for Western partners to provide air defence, as well as long-range weapons to retaliate by striking targets deep inside Russia.   “In total, seven people died in Lviv, including three children,” Internal Affairs Minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram, upping the previously reported toll.

He said search and rescue operations were still going on in Lviv, a western city near the Polish border that has largely been spared over the last two and a half years of war.

Sirens rang out over Lviv before sunrise on Wednesday, according to Mayor Andriy Sadovy, who advised people to take shelter as air defences worked to down a barrage of missiles. The missile attack wounded 40 people, the prosecutor’s office said, damaging schools and medical facilities as well as buildings in the city’s historic centre. The assault on Lviv, which is sheltering thousands displaced by over two years of war, came a day after a Russian strike on the central city of Poltava killed 53 people in one of the deadliest single strikes of the invasion.

“In total, seven people died in Lviv, including three children. The search and rescue operation is ongoing,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram. The missile attack also wounded 40 people, damaging schools and medical facilities as well as buildings in Lviv’s historic centre, according to the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

The western city near the Polish border is home to a UNESCO world heritage site that covers its old town and has been largely spared the intense strikes that have rocked cities further east.

At least seven “architectural objects of local importance were damaged” in Wednesday’s barrage, all of which were located in Lviv’s historical area and UNESCO buffer zone, regional head Maksym Kozytsky said.

Ukrainian FM submits resignation: parliament speaker

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has submitted his resignation, the speaker of parliament said on Wednesday, as part of a major government reshuffle.

The announcement came a day after several other ministers resigned in a significant government reset two-and-a-half years into Russia’s invasion. Kuleba -- the face of Ukrainian diplomacy during the war -- is the most senior of the ministers to offer to step down.

“The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine received a letter of resignation from the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba,” Ruslan Stefanchuk said on social media, adding that parliament would vote on the resignation request soon.

The 43-year-old has held the post since 2020 and since Russia’s 2022 attack travelled the world to advocate for Western support for Kyiv and sanctions on Moscow.

On Tuesday, several ministers handed their resignations, including the ministers of justice, strategic industries and environmental protection.