When explosions ring out across Kramatorsk, Oleksandr Chyvenkov and the police paramedic unit under his command do not rush immediately to the scene. Instead, they listen.

In this compact industrial city, where every detonation reverberates off concrete high-rises, the first blast is often bait. The team monitors military communications channels for reports of any incoming secondary strikes before racing in heavy protective body armor to save lives.

“Most people in our unit have faced double-tap strikes in some way,” said Mr. Chyvenkov, using a common term for such attacks.

He has led rescue teams for more than four years, including in the ruins of the nearby cities of Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Avdiivka, witnessing their methodical destruction before their fall to the Russians. Moscow’s forces are now using the same tactics in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, adjacent cities that form the core of Ukraine’s defenses in the Donbas, the region most coveted by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

When Mr. Chyvenkov’s team rolls out to a shattered apartment block or a blasted-out business, the protocol is stripped down to raw triage: grab the “red” critical cases, stabilize them on the fly and speed toward the hospital before the next Russian strike.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Photographs by Tyler Hicks

Text by Marc Santora

Advertisement