A police officer was killed and dozens of other people were wounded after two blasts in Ukraine’s major western city of Lviv, described by the authorities as a “terrorist act.”
Early on February 22, Ukraine’s national police said that an emergency call had been made shortly after midnight reporting a break-in at a local store.
It added that after a patrol unit arrived at the scene, an explosion occurred and was followed by a subsequent explosion when a second unit arrived.
“It has been preliminarily established that homemade explosive devices detonated,” the police said on the Telegram.
Police said the blasts killed 23-year-old patrol officer Viktoria Shpylka, who began working in the region in 2023 and married another patrol officer in autumn 2025.
At least 25 other people were injured in the incident, 12 remain hospitalized. Speaking in a televised interview, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said three people were in “critical” condition.
Olha Pidtserkovna, an ER doctor at the local hospital, told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that these three people had been placed on ventilators.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the incident a “terrorist attack” and said police had detained a couple of suspects. He did not provide further details.
Klymenko added that further “operational measures and investigative actions” were ongoing: “Authorities are identifying other individuals involved in committing this crime.”
“Police officers respond to calls every day and night, never knowing what awaits them. But they rush to help because protecting people is their primary duty,” Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
In later comments, he added there was “every reason to believe that the crime was carried out on Russia’s orders.”
Russia Attacks Ukraine With 50 Missiles
Meanwhile, the Russian military launched 50 missile and 297 drones in overnight attacks against Ukraine, the country’s air force said on February 22.
Zelenskyy said seven regions were struck, adding attacks on the Kyiv region killed one person and injured at least 17 others, including four children.
According to rescuers, many injured people were pulled from under the rubble following the attack, while one man died from his injuries on the way to the hospital.
“The main target of the attack was the energy sector. Ordinary residential buildings were also damaged, and there is damage to the railway,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
Ukraine’s power grid operator Ukrenergo reported Russian attacks have again prompted emergency power outages in a number of regions, including the capital.
Amid unusually cold winter temperatures, Russia has repeatedly hit power and heating facilities in Kyiv and throughout the country, leaving millions of Ukrainians struggling to stay warm and go about their lives.
The strikes came days after the latest round of US-brokered peace talks in Geneva ended with no breakthrough to end the Russian invasion, which on February 24 will reach the four-year mark.
While a new round of talks might happen again in the near future, Zelenskyy said that by massively attacking Ukraine Moscow continues “to invest in strikes more than in diplomacy.”
