By Hundreds of residents of Lviv packed into a church on Friday, 6th of September, 2024 to mourn three sisters and their mother who were killed in a Russian strike that hit their home in the western Ukrainian city many hundreds of miles from the front line.
Reuters reports that seven civilians were killed and more than 50 wounded in Wednesday’s drone and missile strike that hit a residential area of Lviv. Among the dead were Yevheniia Bazylevych, 43, and her three daughters Yaryna, 21, Dariia, 18, and Emiliia, 7.
The sisters’ father, Yaroslav Bazylevych, 48, wept and hugged well-wishers beside the open white coffins of his three daughters and his wife, his face covered with cuts and bruises sustained during the attack.
“I’ve never met such people in my life,” said Oleksandra Petryuk, a close friend of one of the older sisters, clutching a bouquet of chrysanthemums and fighting back tears outside the church.
Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians, although its forces have killed thousands of them during the full-scale invasion, which Moscow launched in February 2022. Russia regularly strikes targets across Ukraine far from the front line, saying it is hurting Ukraine’s ability to fight by damaging its infrastructure.
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