Lviv, the city in western Ukraine so far spared from the Russian attack, was rocked by powerful explosions

The attack came at a time when US President Joe Biden was in Poland on SaturdayWhere he met his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, as well as Ukrainian officials and refugees. Biden later Speech outside the royal castle in the Polish capital Warsaw, where he forcefully declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot stay in power”.

The White House then said Biden was not advocating regime change: “The president’s view is that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region,” a White House official said.

Earlier in the speech, Biden told the Ukrainian people, “We stand with you. Period.” Biden was briefed on the strike on Lviv before leaving the hotel to deliver his speech, according to a White House official.

“Now in the perpetual struggle for democracy and freedom, Ukraine and its people are standing on the front lines, struggling to save their nation, and their courageous resistance is part of a larger struggle for … the basic democratic principles that unite all free people,” Biden said.

Sadovy said on Twitter on Saturday that Russian forces had attacked the city, but did not provide comprehensive details. He urged residents to stay in shelters.

According to Sadovy, as a result of one of the Russian strikes, an industrial facility in Lviv that was used to store fuel burned down.

“As a result of the bombing, one of the industrial facilities was burnt,” the mayor said. “It is a fuel store.” He did not say whether this was the cause of the smoke.

The mayor added that “the habitable infrastructure has not been harmed.”

Sadovy later asserted that another blow had hit Lviv, which had “significant damage” to the city’s infrastructure. He added that the residential buildings were not damaged.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities said, on Saturday, that bus convoys that were trying to evacuate civilians were stopped and detained by Russian forces, as part of what they claimed was a pressure campaign to force some residents to go to Russia.

In a statement, Oleksandr Staruch, head of the Zaporizhzhya regional administration, said an evacuation convoy of more than 50 buses, which was heading from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol to Zaporizhia, was held overnight at a Russian checkpoint in Vasilievka, about 35 miles south of the capital. Zaporizhia. Staruch said the convoy included two ambulances carrying three children who required urgent medical attention.

Saturday’s attacks come after a top Russian general claimed on Friday that “phase one” of Russia’s military plan had been completed, with its primary focus now on eastern Ukraine.

It was not clear whether the statement implied a change in the Russian military’s goal-points or merely represented a change in public messaging.

“In general, the main tasks of the first stage of the operation have been completed,” Colonel Sergei Rudskoy, first deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, told a news briefing. “The combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was significantly reduced, which allowed us, as I emphasize once again, to focus the main efforts on achieving the main goal – the liberation of Donbass.”

Days after Western leaders showed their united front against Russia, Saturday’s strikes can be seen as a response from Putin and his military to Biden and the West.

The Russian military has claimed that it does not target civilians or residential areas, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.