On 7 November, Russian troops shelled the settlement of the Shostka district of Sumy Oblast, causing a fire, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported. A rescue unit arrived to eliminate the consequences of the attack.

During the rescue efforts to eliminate the fire, the Russian army repeatedly shelled the site, probably knowing that firefighters were already working there.

“The SES workers were forced to evacuate immediately,” Ukraine’s SES wrote on its Telegram channel.

According to the Emergency Service, after the attack was over, the rescuers returned and extinguished the fire.

This is not the first time that Russian forces have targeted rescuers.

The most recent incident reported by the SES was on 13 October 2023. At that time, Russians fired on a rescue unit fighting a fire in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, wounding two of them.

Finland recently donated nine rescue vehicles for Ukraine’s emergency services to replace equipment damaged by daily Russian shelling of frontline settlements, where the need for such resources has significantly increased.

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