Russian planes targeted the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in Yavoriv, which lies about 36 miles from the city of Lviv and just 15 miles from the Polish border. The bombing marks a shift in Russia’s battle plan and indicates that areas in western Ukraine previously seen as safe are now under attack.
On the ground, residents tried to carry on amid growing fear that Russian forces are dramatically expanding their war in the west after meeting heavy resistance in their push to the capital, Kyiv.
One resident in Lviv said Sunday morning was marked by a flurry of sirens from ambulances and police cars throughout the city following the attack, but said the city was still functioning as normal beyond that.
Russia conducted similar attacks in western regions of Ukraine over the past several days, taking out military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk with high-precision long-range weapons. Four Ukrainian servicemen were killed in the attacks in Lutsk, according to the town’s mayor Ihor Polishchuk, and six were wounded.
Those attacks served as a reminder for some residents of Lviv, a city just over 100 miles southwest of Lutsk in the far reaches of yet unscathed Western Ukraine.
“The war is not far,” said Bogdan Luk, a 29-year-old bartender in Lviv. “It can be here tomorrow.”
Lviv, a city of over 700,000 people, has served as a haven for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians escaping the war that continues to rage further east. Many businesses have reopened after closing briefly during the initial invasion, and well-trafficked streets in Lviv’s picturesque city center offer a small sense of normalcy in contrast to Kyiv and other cities gutted by war.
But residents say that could be shattered at any moment.
“The closer to here that the Russian troops come, the greater the possibility of an attack,” said Andrei Rybakov, 36, a doctor living in Lviv.
In the nearly three weeks since the invasion, most in Lviv had become desensitized to the occasional air raid siren. Many residents have felt reassured given Lviv’s proximity to Poland. And some say attacking a city housing hundreds of thousands of refugees would be a step too far even for Russia despite its disregard for limiting civilian casualties in the east.
But Mr. Rybakov said he thinks residents in Lviv are becoming more attentive to the brewing danger.
Others describe a tension where on one hand people still fill the city’s cafes and on the other hand the statues and stained glass have been covered in the hopes of preserving them in the event of an attack.
“It’s a very stark contrast between a city at peace and a city at war,” said Dimko Zhluktenko, 33, who worked as a software engineer and consultant before the invasion. “I would say the main goal of these attacks is to create panic among us, so our economy cannot work the way it is supposed to.”
While Lviv may be on edge, Mr. Zhluktenko the city is not likely to succumb to panic soon.
“It just adds a little more tension,” Andrii Babkin, 42, said. “The locals [in Lviv] already understand that anything can happen. Literally anything.”
• Ben Wolfgang reported from Washington.