Smoke billowed over the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Saturday after several explosions were heard near an oil depot. The sirens started ringing shortly before three explosions were heard and then smoke was seen rising over the city, described Brett Velicovich of Fox News. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, later confirmed the attack by Russian forces. RUSSIA INVASES UKRAINE: LIVE UPDATES The blows come as President Biden visits Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, Poland, just over 240 miles from Lviv.
Explosions rocked the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Saturday, March 26, 2022, near an oil depot. (Fox News) Biden CALLS PUTIN “HASAP” AFTER MEETING WITH UKRAINIAN REFUGEES IN POLAND “I do not know, I just guess, it’s a message to Biden because it’s a clear escalation. They were not really impressive, Lviv, they just did not do it,” Velickovic said. Russian forces hit the western city for the first time since the invasion began more than four weeks ago, on March 18, when an aircraft repair factory was struck outside Lviv airport – about four miles from the city center. It is not clear how close the strikes were to the city center on Saturday. Lviv has become a destination for fugitive refugees seeking a safe haven from the intense bombardment of other parts of Ukraine.
“They shoot there to intimidate people,” James Jay Carafano of the Heritage Foundation told Griff Jenkins of Fox News. US defense officials have speculated that Russian President Vladimir Putin may change his strategy in Ukraine after his forces failed to make significant progress after more than four weeks of fighting. Explosions rocked the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Saturday, March 26, 2022, near an oil depot. (Fox News) Russian troops remain stationed outside the capital, Kiev, and Ukrainians have been able to begin pushing Russian ground troops out of cities such as Kherson in the south and Kharkiv in the north. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that it would focus on the “liberation” of the eastern Donbass region, where Russian-backed separatist groups have been fighting since 2014. U.S. officials have warned from the start of the invasion that Russian forces may try to encircle Kyiv in order to overthrow the democratically elected government and establish a puppet regime. Ukrainian soldiers are seen near the recently collapsed bridge, which was targeted by a Russian missile near the city of Irpin, Ukraine on March 3, 2022. (Photo by Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION However, dead-end ground forces have prompted Russia to rely more on missile strikes. A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Friday that Russia has deployed more than 1,250 missiles since the start of the war and will likely continue to do so.