Ukraine accuses Russia of targeting rescue workers in latest missile strikes

The UN humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine calls attack on eastern Pokrovsk ‘absolutely ruthless’ and says it violates ‘any principle of humanity’

Rescue workers on the scene of a building damaged after Russian missile strikes in Pokrovsk, Donetsk (AP)

Kyiv has accused Moscow of targeting rescue workers after an eastern Ukrainian city was hit with two missiles in quick succession – the first destroying buildings before the second hit emergency crews clearing the scene.

The strikes on the downtown district of the city of Pokrovsk – in the Donetsk region – killed at least seven people, including an emergency official, and wounded more than 80 others, most of them police officers, emergency workers and soldiers who rushed to assist residents, Ukrainian officials said.

The Iskander missiles used in the strikes on Monday evening have an advanced guidance system that increases their accuracy. The two strikes hit within 40 minutes of each other, said Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. The tactic is called a “double tap” in military jargon. It is one that Russia has previously used during Syria’s civil war.

“All of [the police] were there because they were needed, putting their efforts into rescuing people after the first strike,” Ivan Vyhivskyi, chief of Ukraine’s National Police, said on Tuesday. “They knew that under the rubble were the injured – they needed to react, to dig, to retrieve, to save. And the enemy deliberately struck the second time.”

Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed it hit a Ukrainian army command post in Pokrovsk. The head of the Pokrovsk city administration, Serhii Dobriak, described the attacks as “a typical Russian scenario”, with 30 to 40 minutes between missiles.

Mr Kyrylenko said that more than a dozen buildings were damaged in Pokrovsk, including a hotel, a pharmacy, two shops and two cafes.

A wounded resident stands near her destroyed flat in Pokrovsk (Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters)

In a statement, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, described the latest attack as “absolutely ruthless” and said it was “a serious breach” of international law and violated “any principle of humanity”.

Volodymyr Nikulin, a police officer originally from the now Russian-occupied port city of Mariupol, was among the injured. Arriving at the scene between the two strikes, Mr Nikulin had shrapnel pierce his left lung and left hand as the second missile hit. “Today is not my happy day because Russian criminals committed another awful crime in Pokrovsk,” he said in a video from a hospital ward. The police officer said he was concerned about a second strike but wanted to help. Showing other wounded people on his ward, he said in the video: “Look, these are Ukrainian heroes who helped (injured) people.”

Mr Nikulin was later transported to a hospital in Dnipro where he was to have the shrapnel removed.

According to the spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, Colonel Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, 78 employees have been killed and 280 wounded while responding to Russian missile strikes. Kyiv officials say rescuers are protected by international conventions as they are providing humanitarian assistance and are not engaged in combat.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region, an overnight attack on the town of Kruhliakivka killed three people and injured nine others, governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Another Russian strike on a village near Kupiansk, in the same region, is also said to have killed two civilians.

Elsewhere, Ukraine’s security services claimed they had foiled an attempt by Russian hackers to penetrate the Ukrainian armed forces combat information system and so protecting “sensitive information”.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video that his country will fight back against Russia in the Black Sea to ensure it can export its grain. Last month, Russia ended a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that allowed the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports – since then, Moscow has repeatedly struck Ukrainian port facilities and grain silos. Mr Zelensky called on Russia to stop firing missiles and drones and allow trade to take place, but said Kyiv would have no problem defending itself.

“If Russia continues to dominate the Black Sea, outside its territory, blockading or firing at us again, launching missiles at our ports, Ukraine will do the same. This is a just defence of our opportunities, of any corridor,” Mr Zelensky said. “We don’t have that many ships. But they should clearly understand that by the end of the war, they will have zero ships, zero.”

Mr Zelensky’s comments come days after Ukrainian sea-based drones packed with explosives damaged a Russian ship near a Russian port in the area, as well as striking a Russian tanker.