Russia’s “double-tap’’ attack on the small eastern city of Pokrovsk was condemned by the United Nations on Tuesday after it caused seven deaths, injured dozens of rescue workers and prompted Ukrainian officials to accuse the Kremlin of yet another vicious tactic in the nearly 18-month-long war.
Most of the 81 people injured in Monday evening’s missile strikes on a residential area in the Donetsk province city were first responders rushing to provide aid, including at least 19 police officers, officials said. Among those killed was a high-ranking local official of the State Emergency Service.
The emergency personnel were drawn to the site by the first missile hit, then fell victim to a second one less than 40 minutes later in a ploy known as a “double tap’’ in military parlance. The Russian Defense Ministry said it struck a command post in Pokrovsk, but it has employed the same method previously in the conflict and also in the Syrian civil war.
“All of (the police) were there because they were needed, putting their efforts into rescuing people after the first strike,” said Ivan Vyhivskyi, chief of Ukraine’s National Police. “And the enemy deliberately struck the second time.”
Such strikes have killed 78 State Emergency Service employees and injured 280 since the war started, the agency said. The Pokrovsk attack also damaged 12 multistory buildings, a hotel, a pharmacy, two stores and two cafes, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, decried the assault as “a serious breach’’ of international law.
“It is absolutely ruthless to hit the same location twice in the space of minutes, causing the death and injury of people who had quickly come to help the survivors,’’ she said in a statement.
One of those first responders was Volodymyr Nikulin, a police officer originally from the southern port city of Mariupol who disregarded his fears of a second strike to aid the injured. He wound up in a hospital after shrapnel from the second missile pierced one of his lungs and a hand.
“Today is not my happy day because Russian criminals committed another awful crime in Pokrovsk,” he told The Associated Press in a video from his hospital ward.
Developments:
◾ Two rescue workers were injured in another apparent “double-tap” assault when they came under fire after four Russian-guided bombs hit a village near Kupiansk, in the northeastern Kharkiv province, killing two civilians, Ukraine’s presidential office said.
◾ An overnight attack on the town of Kruhliakivka, also in the Kharkiv region, killed three people and injured nine, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
◾ Ukraine’s Security Service said Tuesday the country thwarted an attempt by Russian hackers at breaching the computer system of Kyiv’s armed forces and obtaining “sensitive information.”
Miles of minefields, ‘dragon’s teeth’ slow down Ukraine attacks
The slow progress of Ukraine’s two-month-long counteroffensive, which has retaken a small portion of the approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory Russia has claimed since the war started, has raised questions about how much success Kyiv’s forces can attain.
Russian troops had months to dig in their defenses and prepare for the long-expected attack, laying hundreds of minefields and setting tank barriers known as “dragon’s teeth” to trap Ukrainian soldiers. In addition, Ukraine lacks the air power to support its ground incursions.
So it’s not clear whether Ukraine will be able to make enough headway to improve its leverage in future peace negotiations. That still doesn’t mean the $44 billion in military aid the U.S. has provided has been a poor investment, said Seth Jones, senior vice president and director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The U.S. has been able to weaken one of its most significant adversaries without losing a single U.S. soldier,” Jones said.
− Tom Vanden Brook
Contributing: The Associated Press
#Rescue #workers #injured #attack
