KYIV, Ukraine, June  12, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - 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.