The strike was carried out with a Kalibr missile fired from the Black Sea, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported.
By 7 a.m. local time, four people had been reported killed and a further nine injuried, according to officials.
Rescue workers saved seven people from the rubble and evacuated six others, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
By 9:30 a.m., the number of injured had reached 34, according to news reports.
The strike destroyed the second and third floors in two sections of the apartment building, officials said.
Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said around 60 apartments and 50 cars in the area of strike were damaged.
Emergency workers continued to dig through the debris in search of survivors, Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper reported on its website.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack would be met with a “strong response.”
He posted footage of the strike’s aftermath on Twitter and wrote: “Lviv. Consequences of the night attack by Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, there are wounded and dead. My condolences to the relatives. There will definitely be a response to the enemy. A strong one.”
In all, Russia fired 10 Kalibr cruise missiles against Lviv early on Thursday, launching them from surface carriers and submarines in the Black Sea, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Ukraine’s air defence and aircraft destroyed seven of the 10 missiles, with the remaining three hitting civilian targets in the city, according to officials.
'I wanted our counteroffensive happening much earlier': Zelensky
Ukraine’s president has said that slow deliveries of weapons had delayed Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia, allowing Moscow’s troops to strengthen defences, including through mines, The Telegraph reported.
Speaking to US broadcaster CNN on Wednesday night, Zelensky said he had sought to launch the counterattack against Russia “much earlier” than early June when it eventually began.
He stated: “Our slowed-down counteroffensive is happening due to certain difficulties in the battlefield. Everything is heavily mined there. I wanted our counteroffensive happening much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive will be unfolding later, then much bigger part of our territory will be mined.”
Zelensky revealed he had told US and European leaders that a shortage of weapons supplies would mean the counteroffensive would cost more casualties.
Ukraine’s president told CNN: “I’m grateful to the US as the leaders of our support, but I told them as well as European leaders that we would like to start our counteroffensive earlier, and we will need all the weapons and material for that.”
He added: “Why? Simply because if we start later, it will go slower, and we will have losses of lives, because everything is heavily mined - we will have to go through it all.”
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Thursday is day 498 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Ukrainska Pravda, The Telegraph, The Guardian, CNN