NATO secretary general visits sites of Russian strikes in Kyiv
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, accompanied by Head of Ukraine's State Emergency Service Andrii Danyk, visited locations in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district that were hit during a Russian attack on May 24, when three people were killed.
The State Emergency Service said this in a statement seen by Ukrinform.
Danyk showed Rutte how rescuers worked during the night when 32 locations across the capital came under attack. Emergency teams searched for people under rubble, extinguished fires, and rescued the injured.
He also briefed the NATO chief on a strike against the Kyiv regional emergency headquarters building, which housed an operational coordination center and a server system supporting the 101 emergency hotline and the 112 system. Duty staff, mostly women, were inside at the time of the strike. Despite the destruction, dispatchers and communications specialists managed to move to shelter and continued receiving emergency calls.
"The enemy launched about six missiles against the shopping mall near the Lukianivska metro station, one after another. Fortunately, no rescuers were injured that day as we reacted in time and moved to safe positions. However, during the night of June 2, a rescuer from our team was killed in Dnipro during a repeated strike," Danyk said.
He stressed that ballistic missiles pose the greatest threat to civilians, and that repeated strikes targeting rescuers have become one of the enemy's tactics.
According to Danyk, Ukrainian rescuers are continuously updating safety protocols in response to evolving threats.
For his part, Rutte expressed deep admiration for the dedication of Ukrainian emergency workers. He said that support for Ukraine remains unwavering and that NATO will continue to stand with Ukrainians in their fight for safety and the protection of human life.
On May 24, Russian forces launched a massive attack on Ukraine using drones and air-, sea-, and ground-launched missiles, deploying nearly 700 aerial assets in total. Kyiv was the main target.
As a result of the attack across Ukraine, around 100 people were injured and four were killed.