Europe

Air raid siren sounds in western Ukraine city

Kunihiko Miura / The Yomiuri Shimbun
A woman and her child in an underground shelter following an air raid siren in Lviv, Ukraine, on Friday

By Minako Sasako / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

12:55 JST, February 26, 2022

LVIV, Ukraine — It was just after dawn on Friday in Lviv, near the Polish border in western Ukraine, when the sound of loud sirens echoed through the city. At the hotel where I was staying, an employee led me to an underground shelter.

I waited breathlessly with about 30 other Ukrainian guests for about two hours until it was safe to go above ground. I was told that the sirens had been set off in response to the Russian bombing of a military airport.

Embassy staff from various countries who evacuated from the capital, Kyiv, have set up temporary offices in Lviv, and there are also many temporary corporate offices in the city. However, before dawn on Friday, I heard the roar of military aircraft flying overhead.

Fires from the Russian military’s invasion are quickly spreading throughout the country.

“Anything could happen,” a 45-year-old woman from the city said. “Lviv could be bombed, too.”