2024-09-07 17:33:27
Allegations after recent air strikes
Putin’s perfidious tactics
Updated on 05.09.2024Reading time: 3 min.
When Russian missiles hit Ukraine, rescue workers are also in danger. They are apparently a deliberate target of Putin’s army.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of attacking rescue workers who were called to the scene of a Russian missile attack in Poltava on Tuesday. “While Putin was in Ulan Bator, two Russian missiles hit Poltava. The second one hit when helpers were already tending to the injured. More than 45 people are dead, over 200 injured. Putin knows no limits to brutality. He must be held accountable,” she wrote on the X platform.
The fact that Russian missiles hit a target twice in quick succession is apparently part of a perfidious tactic used by Putin’s army. Sirens also blared in Lviv on Wednesday; according to Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, at least seven people were killed and 38 injured in Russian attacks. This is said to have been another example of the “double tap” tactic. After an initial strike, the attackers wait until helpers approach the scene and then strike again to increase the number of victims even further.
Ukrainian military blogger Igor Sushko also condemned the Russian “double tap” strategy on social media. He also sharply criticized the Ukrainian allies: “The West only spits out garbage like ‘We stand with Ukraine’,” said Sushko. He also shared a video that is supposed to show a burning rescue vehicle after a Russian attack in Lviv. It is unclear whether the images are of an ambulance or a fire engine.
Russia has carried out such double strikes several times before. In April last year, three rescue workers were killed in Kharkiv, and shortly afterwards in Zaporizhia. The pattern is always the same: first a rocket hits, then the rescuers arrive, then another rocket. In Zaporizhia, there were even two, the BBC reported. Four people died. Among the dead were two journalists who were trying to report on the Russian attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had already strongly condemned the double-strike tactic during a Russian attack on Odessa, calling it a “despicable act of cowardice” in March 2023.
Oleh Synehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, told Ukrainian media in April that Russia had begun repeatedly attacking its targets “day and night”: “The occupiers are using the double-strike tactic to hit civilian rescuers and other aid workers who are the first to arrive at the scene,” he said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it had identified a “particularly disturbing pattern” of double-strikes, calling them “cruel” and “unconscionable” and urging them to end, according to the BBC.
“Unfortunately, the double-strike tactic has been used more and more often recently. It is difficult to understand. The Russians have no right to do such a thing,” Ukrainian rescue spokesman Oleksandr Khorunshyj told the BBC. “They know exactly what they are doing, and not only to rescue workers, police officers, utility workers or paramedics. This affects ordinary civilians,” Khorunshyj said.
The Russian tactics also appear particularly brutal because in many cases the primary target is not military. After massive attacks on the city of Kharkiv, Zelensky wrote: “Russia has carried out another brutal attack on Kharkiv today. So far there are almost fifty injured. Rescue workers continue to clear the rubble, with reports of people trapped underneath. Ordinary civilian targets – shopping center, sports palace, urban areas.”