Hundreds mourn mother and daughters killed in Russian strike on Lviv

LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Hundreds of residents of Lviv packed into a church on Friday to mourn three sisters and their mother, killed in a Russian strike that hit their home in the western Ukrainian city many hundreds of miles from the front line.

Seven civilians were killed and more than 50 wounded in Wednesday's drone and missile strike that hit a residential area of Lviv. Among the dead were Yevheniia Bazylevych, 43, and her three daughters Yaryna, 21, Dariia, 18, and Emiliia, 7.

A choir sang as mourners carried the coffins in a procession to the church. Many in the crowd held sunflowers; some wore traditional Ukrainian shirts.

The sisters' father, Yaroslav Bazylevych, 48, wept and hugged well-wishers beside the open white coffins of his three daughters and his wife, his face covered with cuts and bruises sustained during the attack.

“I’ve never met such people in my life," said Oleksandra Petryuk, a close friend of one of the older sisters, clutching a bouquet of chrysanthemums and fighting back tears outside the church.

"I don’t understand why it should be so unfair. Why must their bright family die like that? What for? Why them?"

Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians, although its forces have killed thousands of them during the full-scale invasion, which Moscow launched in February 2022. Russia regularly strikes targets across Ukraine far from the front line, saying it is hurting Ukraine's ability to fight by damaging its infrastructure.

(Writing by Peter Graff, Editing by Timothy Heritage)