Hundreds of emergency workers in Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and a number of other Ukrainian cities have become victims of so-called “double strikes” by the Russians. This means that after a missile or drone attack by the aggressor country on peaceful Ukrainian cities, rescuers, medics, and police arrive at the site of the hit. However, the enemy strikes the second time in the same place just after a few minutes. Why the Russian Federation resorts to such openly terrorist tactics, we will analyse further in the article.
The method of increasing civilian casualties is a fundamental strategy of the aggressor
The Russians, together with their ally, dictator Bashar al-Assad, have been testing the tactic of double strikes in Syria. Cases of double strikes are not new to Ukraine. For example, on August 7, 2023, a bloody attack targeted civilians in the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. However, the enemy began to use such extremist warfare tactics most actively in the spring of 2024. Here are just a few cases from a long list of similar war crimes this year:
On March 4, two rescuers were killed in Donetsk region while extinguishing a fire. In Kramatorsk district, firefighters were attacked by an enemy drone while performing their duties.
On March 15, around midnight, Russians attack Odesa. A missile hit a residential building. As usual, firefighters, medics and an investigative team arrived at the scene. While they were helping the victims, the aggressor hit the same place again with ballistic missiles. As a result, 14 people were killed and 50 injured. In particular, that night, the occupiers took the lives of emergency services representatives, a paramedic, two representatives of the State Emergency Service and a police captain.
On the night of April 3 to 4, 20 drones attacked Kharkiv and the region. 11 of them were shot down, but a number of “shaheds” hit civilian infrastructure. When rescuers were pulling a victim out of the rubble, the enemy attacked again. Three firefighters were killed. Then, the footage of a young SES worker crying at the site of the death of his father, with whom he had worked together, went viral.
However, the Russians were not too moved by this video, so the next day, they used their extremist warfare tactics in Zaporizhzhia. Four people were killed and 23 were injured. Emergency services miraculously managed to avoid serious injuries, but two journalists working at the scene were injured.
On April 25, Russia once again attacked the long-suffering Kherson region. As a result of the attack, a house in the suburbs of the regional center caught fire. Local firefighters responded to the scene, but while extinguishing the fire, enemy drones flew again. Rescue equipment was destroyed and damaged, and one representative of the State Emergency Service was injured.
Why does Russia need a terrorist war with civilians?
We asked experts and officials what is the main meaning of the aggressor’s genocidal war against civilians and how to counter it.
Andrii Yusov, spokesman for the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine said:
“Russia is doing this to cause as much destruction and casualties among civilians as possible – employees of the State Emergency Service, medics, and ordinary citizens who go to rescue. This enemy tactic is an obvious war crime. The main countermeasure is to strengthen air defence systems and the air force in general. Work in this direction is ongoing. We should also not forget about the need to train emergency services personnel to deal with such dastardly tactics of the enemy. This work is also underway”.
Oleksiy Goncharenko, President of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons commented:
“And what of all the things that Russia has been doing during all this time is not genocide? The killing of our people in the occupied territories, the abduction of children, the rocket attacks on civilian infrastructure, the destruction of our energy sector – all of this is genocide.
They are using double-strike tactics to kill as many people as possible. Let’s recall the last attack on Odesa on April 29, when the Russians launched Iskander with a cluster warhead. It was during the rush hour because they wanted to kill as many people as possible. And the daily shelling of Kharkiv? And many other Ukrainian cities. This is all genocide.
Russia does not want the war in Ukraine to end and is not inclined to any diplomacy. These are terrorists and murderers who understand only the language of force. And it is our Armed Forces that make them weak, heroically defending our country and inflicting heavy losses on the Russians. And in order to make our position in the war even stronger, we need to work with our partners in the West and unite them around Ukraine even more”.
Firefighters often find themselves under fire from the aggressor. However, unlike ordinary flames, their means of protection are powerless. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the aggressor state has killed about a hundred rescuers (officially 91 as of mid-April), and another three and a half hundred have been injured. In Odesa alone, two firefighters have been killed and eight others injured by Russian double strikes this year.
Maryna Martynenko, spokesperson for the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Odesa Region, told us:
“We had a similar incident last summer in the Bolhradsky district. We responded to a hit, and again, there was an air raid alert. The rescuers managed to move to a safe place, but the second strike destroyed all our equipment. But you understand that we can’t always work according to our algorithms when it comes to residential buildings. Sometimes, it takes minutes to respond when, for example, there is a fire and people are locked in their apartments.
Such a situation happened on March 15 this year. There were hits to residential buildings, and there was information that people could be trapped under the rubble. Unfortunately, we all know what happened – there was a second hit when all the services arrived. Everything was covered with bodies. Our rescuers were among them. We couldn’t tell who was alive and who was not. What we see is a targeted killing of operational services – people who come to provide assistance and rescue. The enemy wants to show that no one can be safe. They kill everyone”.
Conclusions
The Russian Federation continues to behave like a terrorist state, using the full arsenal of warfare against the civilian population of Ukraine. Through the war on emergency services, the aggressor is trying to sow panic and fear among the population by using double-strike tactics, probably so that citizens will start putting pressure on the authorities to negotiate peace on any terms. This tactic did not work at the beginning of the war, and it is not working now. Therefore, Russia is senselessly engaged in the genocide of Ukraine. Accordingly, there can be no talk of negotiations with terrorists but only of documenting war crimes in order to bring all those responsible to justice after the Ukrainian victory.
Kostyantyn Grechany
