Rescuers resumed their search for survivors on Tuesday morning in a small eastern Ukrainian city where two missile strikes just 37 minutes apart killed at least seven people on Monday evening, including an emergency worker who had rushed to the scene of the first attack.
The search in the city of Pokrovsk was suspended overnight because of the threat of additional attacks, according to Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs. As of 13 a.m. local time on Tuesday, officials said 88 people were injured, including 38 emergency workers and two children.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the regional military administration in Donetsk, said the missiles had landed in the city center and damaged high-rise buildings, homes, administrative buildings, and a hotel. Photos of the wreckage showed a five-story building with a chunk of the top floor missing and many of its window frames badly warped. A children’s playground was left littered with debris that had fallen from the buildings.
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Russian troops have dropped guided aerial bombs on a village in Kharkiv Oblast – two civilians were killed, and seven people were injured, including two emergency workers who came under another attack. Oleh Syniehubov, Head of the Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration, reported this.
“At about 19:45, the invaders hit the village of Kruhliakivka, Kupiansk district, with four guided aerial bombs. According to preliminary data from emergency doctors, two civilians have been killed – a woman about 45 years old and a man about 60 years old. Two women and two men have been hospitalised. Another 62-year-old woman has received medical treatment on the spot. Emergency workers came under repeated fire from the invaders. Two employees of the State Emergency Service were injured; they have been hospitalised.” said Oleh Syniehubov.
China’s increasing misalignment with Russia on any settlement to end the war in Ukraine was reportedly evident at the talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on August 5-6. The Financial Times reported that the Chinese representatives at the meeting were “constructive” and “keen to show that [China] is not Russia.” The Financial Times quoted one European diplomat present at the talks as saying that the “mere presence of China shows Russia is more and more isolated.”
The Chinese delegation reportedly indicated its willingness to attend the next meeting of a similar format that will likely also exclude Russia. A Russian insider source alleged that Russia has rejected China’s 12-point peace plan for the war in Ukraine from February 2023 (which the Chinese delegation re-introduced during the talks in Saudi Arabia) and that some Chinese elites are secretly expressing their dissatisfaction with the actions of the Russian leadership regarding a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine.
These reports from the talks in Saudi Arabia and insider allegations, if true, align with ISW’s previous assessments that China is not fully aligned with Russia on the issue of Ukraine and that Russia and China’s relationship is not a “no limits partnership” as the Kremlin desires.
Rescuer Andriy Omelchenko was killed in Pokrovsk on August 7. Andriy was a rescuer, officer, and deputy head of the Main Department of the State Emergency Service in Donetsk Oblast. After the first strike, he and other rescuers immediately went to the scene to pull people out of the rubble. But half an hour later, the occupiers struck Pokrovsk for the second time, very close to the hotel.
“Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast. A cynical terrorist attack on a residential building. Two rockets were fired. Unfortunately, a rescuer who arrived at the scene was killed during the repeated shelling. Another 5 rescuers were severely injured,” the head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, Serhiy Kruk, wrote on Facebook.
Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko, the head of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration Pavlo Kyrylenko, and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed their condolences to the families.
“The death of Andriy Omelchenko, a colonel of the Civil Defense Service, deputy head of the Main Emergency Response Department of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Donetsk Oblast deeply saddens us. Today, a Russian missile took his life in Pokrovsk. My sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. Irreparable loss,” said Igor Klymenko.