Russia launched its most intense combined barrage of 2026 overnight, firing 392 Shahed-series attack drones and 34 cruise missiles across at least 11 Ukrainian regions in a single coordinated wave. Five civilians were killed and more than 40 were wounded. For the first time since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, a Russian strike caused confirmed damage to a site inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List: the Historic Centre of Lviv, which includes the medieval Market Square and the Dormition Church complex dating to the sixteenth century. A high-rise residential tower adjacent to the protected zone also caught fire; rescue crews worked through the night.
The attack was not purely destructive in its objectives. Military analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, the Washington-based research organization whose daily assessments are read by NATO defense ministries, confirmed on Tuesday that Russia's spring-summer offensive is now officially underway. ISW assessed that the ground campaign — which it dated to approximately March 17 — is targeting a broad front in eastern Ukraine, with the primary axis of advance running through the remaining Ukrainian-held portions of Donetsk Oblast. Russia currently controls approximately 45,783 square miles of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, or roughly 20 percent of the country's pre-2014 area.
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