"We hoped that the rescuers would not die, that they would not be shot and taken prisoner," - Head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine Serhiy Kruk
"We fall under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. We are not the units that take part in combat operations, have weapons, etc. And we hoped that the rescuers would not die, that they would not be shot, captured. But in the first days of the war, we realized that the russian aggressor despises international norms and rules." Serhiy Kruk, the Head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, announced this on the air of the national telethon, in an interview with Suspilno.
"During the evacuation activities in Irpen, in Buchi - because we were doing this together with the police - we were taken captured, our equipment was taken away. During evacuations from Mariupol, on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia region, equipment was also taken from the rescuers, fire trucks were shot, and rescuers were taken as prisoners. As of today, we have five rescuers in captivity," added the Head of the State Emergency Service.
So, to date, as a result of russian attacks or occupation of Ukrainian territories, the State Emergency Service has lost more than 1,700 vehicles, more than 300 fire stations and more than 700 buildings of various types.
The Head of the State Emergency Service also informed about the statistics of the deaths of the employees of the State Emergency Service during the full-scale war: "More than 200 rescuers were injured, and 68 employees of the SES of Ukraine were killed."
Separately, Serhiy Kruk stressed that recently there have been more frequent attacks on units of the SES.
