Lviv attacked on 24 March

On 24 March 2026 russia launched the biggest attack on Ukraine thus far - 948 drones and 34 missiles, in the space of 24 hours – hitting civilian locations throughout the country. Lviv was hit in broad daylight. Two Sunflower Dreams Project volunteers were working in Lviv at that time – David and Anca.

The red building on the right is what remains from the Hlyniany Gate, dating back to 1618, the entrance to the 16th century Bernardine Monastery. On the left, behind the yellow buses, is Muzey Ivana Heorhiya Pinzelya, a sculpture museum in a 17th-century church. In autumn 2021 work on it was finished and the museum became the first fully accessible museum in Ukraine for visitors with all disabilities.

David has taken this picture while driving the Lviv Volunteer Kitchen van, gathering supplies for the ration packs the LVK is producing for frontline soldiers, like he does each weekday when he is in Lviv.

Cyprian Chmelewski, a Polish volunteer and our friend, who has worked at LVK and many other places and has fundraised for the Ukrainian army, was close to the residential building that was hit. He, selflessly, ran into the building and helped evacuate a 75-year-old woman who was on the second floor, just beneath the roof on fire. A Ukrainian newspaper published an article on what happened on that day. The article is in Ukrainian, but it can be easily translated with in-browser translation or various translation tools available online.

The picture on the right was taken by Anca 2-3 hours after the building was hit. The emergency services were clearing the debris.

This building, in the historic centre of Lviv and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2023. Several of the church's windows were damaged and the Central State Historical Archives in Lviv is located in a building adjacent to the church. The Archives have a significant collection of sources from the Bernardine Archive of 1784 and include important historical artefacts, such as three 12th-century birch bark manuscripts, among documents which are related to Ukrainian history.

In addition, the church and this residential building are only a few meters away from the Children’s library where many of the paintings we are displaying in our exhibitions were painted. If the attack would have been only a few days earlier, the children would have been painting at around the same time the building was hit.

In the evening of 11 April, a day before Orthodox Easter being celebrated in Ukraine, Anca took this picture of people going to church, as they do each year, to have their traditional baskets blessed. A church service was held outside, as normal.

Easter was a time of celebration and joy.

In the middle of the photo, between the church and the cross, the damaged building is visible. The new roof is starting to be replaced; the rafters were installed in under three weeks.