Drone strikes by Moscow killed 12 coal miners and injured 16 more in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region Feb. 1. In the “double tap” attack, the Russian pilot of an Iranian-made drone targeted a bus with workers coming off their shift from a mine run by DTEK, the country’s largest coal and power company. Then, as the injured passengers evacuated the vehicle, another drone pilot zeroed in, hitting them with his deadly load. Above, the burnt-out bus.
DTEK said this was part of a broader Russian attack on its mining operations and coal trains in the area, set to deliver essential energy and heating fuel in the coldest winter in more than a decade. Overall, company CEO Maxim Timchenko told the press, strikes by Moscow have killed at least 19 DTEK miners and other employees, and injured 119 on the job.
At the same time, Moscow also attacked Ukraine’s rail system, hitting both passenger and freight cars, locomotives, tracks and buildings.
These strikes follow Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign to target attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, leaving hundreds of thousands in the capital, Kyiv, without heat, water and electricity, as the temperature could fall as low as minus 22 F.
Moscow hopes to break the will of Ukraine’s working people, but their response is the opposite — determination to continue to resist.