Russian missiles destroy aircraft repair plant in Ukraine's Lviv: Mayor

Russia-Ukraine war: Smoke after a missile attack targeting the Ukrainian capital’s television centre in Kyiv.

Russian forces on Friday destroyed an aircraft repair plant in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv but no one was hurt, the mayor said.

A thick pall of grey smoke streamed across the clear blue sky over Lviv's airport on Friday morning, an AFP reporter saw, and ambulances raced to the scene.

"Several missiles hit an aircraft repair plant," Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on the messaging app Telegram, adding the plant had been destroyed. "There are no casualties," he said, adding that operations at the plant had been halted.

He earlier wrote that Russian forces had struck an area close to Lviv's airport.  Armed checkpoints turned motorists back from roads leading to the airport, and a local man told AFP he had heard a blast earlier Friday.

Ukraine's air force, referring to the strike and citing preliminary information, said that six "cruise missiles had been launched, probably X-555, from the Black Sea." Two missiles had been destroyed, the statement added.

Lviv is the largest city in western Ukraine and a popular tourist destination known for its picturesque views. Last weekend Russian cruise missiles devastated a military base west of Lviv, killing 35 people and wounding more than 130.

Located 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the border with EU member Poland, the city had largely been spared since Russian forces invaded on February 24.