Yavoriv Training Ground

The Yavoriv Training Ground is a military training ground in the Lviv region. 

On the night of March 13, 2022, the occupiers shelled the Yavoriv Training Ground. At that time, the Russians fired more than 30 missiles. The air defence of the Lviv region neutralised most of them, but 8 still reached their target – the Yavoriv Training Ground was damaged.

The shelling of the Yavoriv Training Ground is blackmail of Ukraine and the world

The Russian occupiers have repeatedly resorted to bloody shelling of various places in Ukraine, and the shelling of the Yavoriv Training Ground by Russian troops became yet another crime. As a result of the missile attack, 61 people were killed and 160 were injured.

Russia's shelling of the Yavoriv Training Ground (or the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre) took place 20 kilometres from the border with Poland –  Ukraine's partner country and a NATO member state. This is a glaring sign that Russia continues to blackmail Western countries and Ukraine.

The explosions could be heard from Poland – at the Polish-Ukrainian border, eyewitnesses were even able to film the flashes visible from the training ground.

The Yavoriv Training Ground was a gathering place for Ukrainian military personnel and instructors from NATO countries. In 2019, training was held there to improve the skills of Ukrainian soldiers. 

The shelling of the Yavoriv Training Ground is another bloody sign for NATO, which is providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the war with Russia. The strike was the closest to the border of a NATO member state – Russia is going further and further in its threats to the North Atlantic Alliance.

A closed sky could have prevented the shelling

The shelling of the Yavoriv Training Ground forced Ukraine to once again appeal to NATO to close the sky over the country – not only strategic facilities suffer from the devastating shelling by the occupiers, but also:

• residential buildings;
• the peaceful civilian population;
• civilian cars;
• water and electricity supply systems.

The Ukrainian authorities, Ukrainians and the entire civilised world are calling on NATO to close the sky over Ukraine – people are taking to rallies and protests. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, ordinary people from all over the world are already for Ukraine – now it is only up to politicians.

The Yavoriv Training Ground is a sign that Russia and Putin will not want to limit themselves to one conquered country – therefore, NATO member states must take measures as soon as possible to secure the Ukrainian sky and prevent even more deaths.

In May 2024, the court sentenced a 74-year-old spotter who directed fire at the Yavoriv Training Ground. 74-year-old Oleksandr Kostornyi was sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing maps of the military training ground. By the court's decision, his property will be confiscated.