Nine dead in Russian strike on southern Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine: A Russian strike on President Volodymyr Zelensky´s home town in southern Ukraine on Wednesday killed nine people and wounded at least two dozen more, officials said.

The Ukrainian leader posted video footage from the scene of the attack in Kryvyi Rig showing rescue workers scouring debris for survivors, with smoke billowing from a destroyed building.

“The death toll from the hostile attack on Kryvyi Rig has risen to nine people,” the Prosecutor General´s office said in a statement on Telegram.

It added that “29 people were wounded, including five children. The search and rescue operation is ongoing.”

Zelensky in his post called on Ukraine´s allies to step up deliveries of sophisticated aerial batteries to ward off Russian aerial attacks.

“Modern air defence systems can provide maximum protection for people, our cities and our positions. And we need them as much as possible,” he wrote.

Kryvyi Rig, which had a pre-war population of around 635,000, has been targeted by Russian forces throughout the invasion, launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.

It lies in the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region where officials said three civilians, including a 13-year-old boy, had been wounded in a Russian drone attack overnight.