RUSSIA targeted firefighters in a sick “double tap” drone strike on an apartment building in Ukraine – killing a father in front of his son.
Heartbreaking footage revealed the hideous aftermath of Putin’s cruelty that left at least five dead, including three rescuers responding to the first hit.
EPARescue workers look at the bodies of their fallen comrades that were hit by a second and third strike on the building[/caption]
TwitterFireman Volodymyr Logienko breaks down as he discovered his father was killed[/caption]
TwitterHe was filmed crying uncontrollably as his colleagues comforted him[/caption]
ReutersThe burnt out shell of the fire truck that was targeted by Russia[/caption]
Vladyslav Logienko, 52, was one of the first on the scene early on Thursday morning after an Iranian-made Shahed drone smashed into a block of flats in Kharkiv.
In less than an hour, he had been killed with two other rescue workers after Russia launched a repeat attack at the already burning 14-storey building.
Ukraine released harrowing footage of Mr Logienko’s son, Volodymyr, kneeling down and weeping at the sight of his father’s body.
According to reports, he heard the blast as he put out a fire in the next-door building, and knowing his father had been inside, ran to him.
His colleagues are seen rushing to comfort the defeated-looking young fireman as he throws off his helmet and wipes his streaming tears from his face.
Two more civilians were killed and 12 injured in what Kharkiv’s regional governor called a “double tap” strike.
The first drone hit the apartment building and other nearby homes at 1am on Thursday.
Before 2am, two more strikes were launched – killing the rescue workers and destroying their fire truck.
“Double tap” strikes are designed to purposely target the emergency workers responding to the first attack.
Moscow has already tested such barbarism in Ukraine before and in its aerial bombing campaigns in Syria with the intention to hurt civilians caught in the line of fire.
One of the Iranian drones used in the attack had the inscription “For Crocus City Hall” – the site of ISIS’s devastating terror attack on Russia last month – carved onto it.
Moscow is still attempting to baselessly blame Kyiv for the massacre four terrorists unleashed at the concert hall that left at least 143 dead.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “despicable”.
He said: “A strike on Kharkiv, just an ordinary apartment building. With three Shaheds.
TwitterVolodymyr Logienko tore of his hat at the sight of his 52-year-old father’s body[/caption]
APThree firemen were killed and two more civilians in the deadly drone blast[/caption]
EPARescue workers rushing to put out the blaze caused by Iran’s lethal Shahed drones supplied to Russia[/caption]
“A despicable and cynical attack, when the rescuers arrived at the scene of the strike, the terrorists attacked again.”
He added: “Strengthening Ukraine’s air defence capabilities directly translates into saving lives.”
The war-torn country’s interior minister referred to the attack as a “surgical strike”.
Iranian kamikaze Shahed drones are believed to be capable of travelling at 310mph and newer models are increasingly able to dodge Ukraine’s air defences.
Ukraine’s human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, in response to the attack, said: “Each manifestation of Russian terror once again proves that the country-terrorist deserves only one thing – a tribunal.”
It comes as Russia launched another 20 Shaded drones overnight at Ukrainian cities with no clear military targets.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the goal of Russia’s escalated attacks on civilian areas and the country’s power grid may be to compel Ukraine to deploy its air defence systems away from the front line.
That would allow Russia to provide more air cover for its ground operations on the battlefield, the think-tank said on Wednesday.
Russia also attacked energy infrastructure in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions over the past day, wounding two people.
Some 700,000 people in Kharkiv lost power last week after a massive missile attack hit the city’s thermal power plant. Repairs are ongoing.
Meanwhile, Ukraine launched an enormous overnight drone attack that targeted Russian airfields home to Putin’s prized Su-34 and Tu-160 bombers.
More than 60 blasts hit two bases – destroying at least six of Putin’s multi-million warplanes and damaging eight more.
GettyThe wreckage of the 14-storey building in the morning after the strike[/caption]
Footage of Ukraine’s overnight drone blitz