UPDATES WITH LATEST DEATH TOLL; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE
By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - The death toll from late Tuesday’s Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia rose to nine, local authorities said on Wednesday.
“The death toll in Zaporizhzhia has risen to nine. Unfortunately, one (more) person died in hospital. A missile strike on a private medical facility in the city on Dec. 10 injured 21 people, including a child," Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said on Telegram.
It also said that search and rescue operations are ongoing at the scene of the strike, fearing that people might still be trapped under the rubble.
Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov also confirmed the number of casualties, saying on Telegram the strike on the city’s Voznesenivskyi district damaged 20 residential buildings and three non-residential buildings in the city.
Late Tuesday, Fedorov had reported that four people were killed and 20 others injured in the attack.
“We don't have enough systems now to protect our country from Russian missiles. But our partners do have these systems. We repeat, again and again, that air defense systems should save lives, not collect dust in storage bases,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an evening video address.
Russian authorities have not yet commented on the incident.