Rescuers were hard at work Wednesday trying to find survivors under the rubble of a building destroyed the day before by a Russian missile strike in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia, which left six people dead, officials said.
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The attack that destroyed a private clinic and an office building on Tuesday was the latest in a series of escalating strikes in southern Ukraine, heightening fears of a new Russian offensive in the region.
“The death toll stands at six,” the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said on social media. A previous report reported at least four deaths.
“Up to five people could be trapped under the rubble. The police, rescue workers, volunteers and relevant municipal services continue to work on site,” added the ministry press release.
Twenty-two other people were injured in the attack, including a five-year-old girl, according to the ministry, which published a photo of an ambulance parked next to a destroyed building.
Zaporizhia is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed in 2022, without fully controlling it.
Ukrainian experts and soldiers believe that the Russian army could prepare a new land offensive on the Southern front, particularly in the Zaporizhia region where positions have remained generally unchanged for months.
Such an attack would constitute a challenge for the Ukrainian army, already struggling on the Eastern Front and which is engaged in the Russian border region of Kursk, of which it occupies a small part.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who condemned “a brutal attack” on Tuesday, once again urged the West to provide more anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine, in particular American Patriot batteries of which he said he needed “10 at 12” units.
“We do not have enough systems to protect our country against Russian missiles. But our partners have these systems,” he argued.
Russia has stepped up its strikes against southern Ukraine in recent weeks. A Russian attack had already left 10 dead in Zaporizhia on December 6.
