Harrowing footage shows Russia is now targeting Ukrainian residential areas

Harrowing footage has revealed the extent of escalating Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Having already commited a number of war crimes through his "special military operation", Vladimir Putin is now targeting residential areas far beyond the frontline of the war, with a Russian rocket hitting an apartment building in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and killing at least four people.

Ukraine's interior minister Ihor Klymenko reported the cruel attack and added another 32 people were injured in the attack, which Russia's military has not commented on.

Writing on Telegram, Klymenko said at least seven people had been rescued from the apartment block, adding there were fears more people could be trapped under rubble.

Meanwhile mayor Andriy Sadovyi said about 60 homes had been seriously damaged, and a number of building roofs had been blown away. He also said a school and polytechnic university dormitories were also damaged.

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“This is the biggest attack on Lviv’s civilian infrastructure since the beginning” of Russia’s invasion, Sadovyi said on his Telegram channel, adding that rescuers were working to “clear debris and pull out all the dead” from the building.

And Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of Lviv, revealed a 21-year-old was among the dead.

She said: "The youngest girl, who was killed by a rocket in her apartment tonight in Lviv, was only 21. Russia is killing our youth. Our future."

She added: "The oldest person to die was 95. The woman survived the second world war, but, unfortunately, she did not survive Ruscism."

Dr Sasha Dovzhyk, who works at the Ukrainian Institute London but is currently in Lviv, described hiding in her bathroom when she heard the air raid siren.

"This is what we are supposed to do," she told the BBC. "This is the Ukrainian routine.

"You are supposed to put two walls and preferably no windows, no glass, between yourself and the street, the outside.

"When the rocket, the missile, a Kalibr missile as we know now, hit the residential building 2km away the walls in the bathroom where I was hiding shook, so the impact was quite strong."

This is not the first time Russia has targeted civilians during the war.

Last week 13 people were killed - including children - when a restaurant and shopping centre were struck in Kramatorsk, an eastern city close to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, last month Lviv officials reported that critical infrastructure had been hit in the city in a drone attack.

Footage of the horrifying incident circulated on social media, with people slamming Putin's murderous regime.

Ukrainian President Zelensky called Russia "terrorists" and said there will be a "strong" reaction "to the enemy".

The sooner the war comes to an end, the better.

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