2 Ukrainian women are pulled alive from rubble hours after Russian missile strike

Ukraine seeks more air defense systems from Western allies after deadly Russian strikes on civilian areas.

Rescue crews working through the night pulled two women from rubble more than seven hours after a Russian missile struck a private medical clinic in a southern Ukraine city, killing six people and wounding 22 others, authorities said Wednesday (December 11, 2024).

The women called rescue services on their cellphones to say they were buried under the rubble after the attack late Tuesday in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine's Emergency Services said.

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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 Zelenskyy said the Zaporizhzhia strike showed that his country still needs more air defense 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. Zelenskyy said late Tuesday in his daily address to the nation.

Air defence systems that Ukraine's allies possess “should save lives, and not gather dust in storage bases,” he said.