Rescue crews working through the night have pulled two women from rubble more than seven hours after a Russian missile struck a private medical clinic in a southern Ukrainian city, killing nine people and injuring 22 others, authorities said.
The women called rescue services on their mobile phones to say they were buried under the rubble after the attack late on Tuesday in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s emergency services said.
Deadly Russian strikes on civilian areas have been a feature of the almost three-year war.
Ukraine’s Western allies are sending more aid to help it keep fighting Russia’s invasion, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Zaporizhzhia strike showed that his country still needs more air defence systems.
He urged Western partners to send weaponry they are holding in their arsenals.
“We currently do not have enough systems to protect our country from Russian missiles. But partners have these systems,” Mr Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation on Tuesday night.
Air defence systems that Ukraine’s allies possess “should save lives, and not gather dust in storage bases”, he said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine kept up its long-range attacks on areas behind Russian lines that are supporting its war effort.
I am deeply grateful to President Biden, the U.S. Treasury @SecYellen, and the bipartisan support of Congress for the disbursement of $20 billion under the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration for Ukraine initiative. This critical support, funded by immobilized Russian assets,…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 10, 2024
A Ukrainian drone attack caused a blaze at an industrial facility in Russia’s Bryansk region, governor Alexander Bogomaz said.
Air defences downed 14 Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk region early Wednesday, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
Also, a Ukrainian missile attack on the city of Taganrog in the Rostov region early on Wednesday damaged an industrial plant, governor Yuri Slusar said.
