on Wednesday 12 June, 2024

Russian strike on Ukraine kills eight, wounds 21

Rescue workers and police officers carry an injured person by a stretcher to an ambulance from a building which was destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 10, 2024. (AP)
by : AFP

A Russian strike on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town in southern Ukraine on Wednesday killed eight people and wounded nearly 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 has risen to eight people. At least 21 people were wounded, including two children. Another four people are missing,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on social media.

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

“Modern air defense 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.