At least two Ukrainian military servicemen were killed and one was injured in an enemy attack near the frontline village of Vodyane close to port city of Mariupol some 64o kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
The incident occurred on July 1 at 10.50 a.m. local time during a medevac mission in the area, according to Ukraine’s Joint Forces Operation press service.
The Ukrainian combat medic unit moving in a Humvee vehicle was targeted with a guided anti-tank missile.
“As result of the direct hit by (Russian-backed) militants, 1 serviceman was killed at the scene,” the military communique reads.
“Two more were injured. In particular, one of the injured, a combat medic, is in critical condition.”
But later in the day, the badly-hurt combat medic was reported to have died of his wounds in a hospital.
In a statement, the Ukrainian military command noted that engaging medical vehicles was “the violation of international humanitarian law.”
“The villainous attack against the medical vehicle is yet another evidence of the occupants ignoring any international legal norms,” the Joint Forces Operation said.
The deadly attack occurred just the same day Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called a “fragile hope of peace” the recent mutual withdrawal of combating forces deployed near the entry point of Stanystsia Luhanska between June 26 and 30.
Part of Zelensky’s peace initiative over Donbas, the move was intended to pave a way for a sustained armistice all along the 450-kilometers frontline and subsequent political settlement process in the embattled region in compliance with the Minsk peace agreements.
Nonetheless, according to Ukraine’s daily military dispatches on the situation in the war zone, low-intensity fighting continued at most of the Donbas hotspots, with numerous facts of firearms and heavy weapons engaged in combat.
Since early 2000s, Ukraine’s Armed Forces have been operating over 100 units of the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), more commonly known as Humvees, donated by the United States.
In Ukraine, the vehicles are mostly operated by airborne and marine combat formations, including during deployments to the war zone of Donbas.
As recently as in April 2019, another batch of 35 Humvees, including 15 ambulance vehicles, were brought to Ukraine’s port of Odesa as part of non-paid military aid from the U.S.
