Russia launches 'double-tap' attack on rescue workers in Sumy Oblast

Russian forces launched a "double-tap" attack on first responders as they were curbing the aftermath of the previous attack in Sumy Oblast on July 21, the State Emergency Service said.

Overnight, Russian forces launched a large-scale attack with 39 drones and five missiles across Ukraine. At least one missile successfully hit critical infrastructure in Sumy Oblast, and two drones were downed over the region, according to local authorities.

Russian troops also shelled Sumy Oblast 20 times overnight with mortars, and deployed mines and FPV (first-person view) drones, causing 44 explosions, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported. No casualties had been reported at the time of publication.

The overnight attacks caused five fires in the region. As rescue workers were extinguishing one of the fires at a residential building in the morning, Russian forces attacked again, according to the State Emergency Service.

Since first responders at the site took shelter, there were no casualties in the "double-tap" attack. They were able to finish extinguishing the fire afterward.

While there is no proof that Russian troops intended to target the rescue workers in the attack, they have previously used the tactic of hitting the same places again shortly after the first strike in Ukraine, known as “double-tap” attacks, multiple times.

Over the past months, Russia's  “double-tap” attacks escalated, killing nearly 30 rescue workers in Odesa, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia and wounding more than 20 in March and April of 2024 alone, according to Timothy Hanway, the acting U.S. envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

In a recent interview with the Ukrainian media Interfax on July 19, the head of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service Andrii Danyk said that 93 emergency workers were killed and almost 400 wounded since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion.

“We lose people almost every day,” he told Interfax. “Recently, the enemy has generally announced a hunt for our employees.”