Russian Video Appears to Show Drone Strike on Ukrainian Rescuers

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said on 6 July that Russian troops had released video footage showing one of their drones deliberately striking a clearly marked vehicle carrying Ukrainian rescue workers in the Donetsk region. Kyiv described the attack as a deliberate assault on first responders and evidence of a war crime. The recording, disseminated via Russian military channels on the messaging platform Telegram, depicts the drone loitering over the site of an earlier airstrike before releasing a munition directly onto emergency personnel who were searching for survivors in the rubble. No casualty figures were immediately available. Targeting medical or rescue staff violates the Geneva Conventions, and Ukrainian officials said they would forward the footage to international investigators. The incident follows a pattern of drone and artillery attacks on first responders reported in the eastern combat zone since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.