State Emergency Service says how many rescuers have died since the war began

Rescue services have been among the first to face the consequences of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine. The rescuers are constantly in the line of fire, risking their lives to save Ukrainians. The war has also taken their lives.

The head of the State Emergencies Service, Serhiy Kruk, said that so far since the Russian invasion, 68 rescuers have been killed and another 201 employees of the State Emergencies Service of Ukraine have been injured, Ukrinform reported.

We fall under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. We are not units that are engaged in combat operations, who have weapons etc. And we hoped that the rescuers would not be killed, that they would not be shot, taken prisoner. But in the first days of the war we realized that the Russian aggressor despised international norms, rules," Kruk said.

He also said that recently there had been frequent shelling of the SSES units.

According to him, five rescuers are currently being held captive by the Russian Federation.