From the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 until August 31, 2024, Russia launched 36 double-tap strikes against Ukraine.
The double-tup tactic involves launching a secondary strike at the same location a few minutes after the initial strike. A secondary attack is usually aimed at, in particular, rescuers, medics, and journalists — that is, those civilians who quickly go to the places of attack. Moreover, Russian propaganda actively encourages such attacks and tries to legitimize the killing of those who provide first aid, especially employees of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) and the National Police of Ukraine, who are under the protection of international humanitarian law.
This is stated in the research of the non-governmental organization Truth Hounds.
Russian official sources, media and military bloggers usually do not comment on double-tap strikes. When an attack is deemed “successful”, Russian news outlets typically report the event without focusing on the specific tactics used.
However, according to researchers, since the summer of 2024, the discourse about the use of double-tap strike tactics by the Russian military has somewhat revived.
How Russia publicly approves double-tap strikes
The popular Russian Telegram channel "Voenny osvedomitel" reported an attack on the settlement of Buda on July 13, 2024, noting: "After the enemy began to eliminate the consequences, a second attack was made on the employees of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs and SESU."
Commenting on the death of the head of the Kharkiv district department of the State Emergency Service in the Kharkiv region and policemen, the authors of the channel claim that this incident is "not the first case that demonstrates the effectiveness of double-tap strikes on the places of liquidation of the consequences of primary attacks."
“This statement indicates that the Russian side is purposefully seeking to cause casualties among the rescuers and police responding to the initial strikes. It also suggests that the attack on Buda is part of a broader strategy and pattern of Russian operations where double strikes are used to amplify the effects of an initial strike,” the Truth Hounds said.
In addition, on August 4, 2024, one of the most popular Russian military analysts Mikhail Zvinchuk reported on the attack of Russian drones on the oil terminal in Hnivan (Vinnytsia region), admitting that a "double-tap" tactic was used.
"At first there were three strikes. After firefighters arrived at the scene, a fourth strike was made by the ʼGeranʼ drone, which hit the tank directly. This shows that we are changing fire damage approaches, taking into account the time needed to extinguish fires and the arrival of evacuation teams," said Zvinchuk.
How Russia justifies double-tap strikes
Admitting that when planning these attacks, the Russian military takes into account the response time of firefighters and "evacuation teams", who later become targets for subsequent strikes, Zvinchuk also claims that the so-called "evacuation teams" allegedly often consist of representatives of "Ukrainian formations".
An important detail in this context is a report from the “gefestwar” Telegram channel related to drone operations.
So, on August 16, 2024, the channel published a video with the consequences of an attack on a school in Antonivka (Kherson region). This incident is one of the Truth Hounds confirmed double-tap strikes. Russian troops claimed that the Ukrainian military allegedly used the school as a control point for unmanned aerial vehicles. After the first attack caused a fire, rescuers arrived at the scene, but the Russians soon struck again.
On August 7, 2023, the Russian army launched a double-tap missile attack on the city of Pokrovsk (Donetsk region). At least 10 people were killed and another 93 were injured.
The first missile hit a five-story apartment building at approximately 7:15 p.m., completely destroying the top two floors and severely damaging others in the west wing of the building. This building is located in the very center of the city, it was exclusively inhabited by local residents.
The scene shortly after the first strike in Pokrovsk on August 7, 2023.
At 7:52 p.m., the Russian military struck again on the same street. This time, another missile hit the upper floors of the “Druzhba” Hotel, located about 20 meters from the building hit by the first strike.
If two people were killed during the first strike, after the second the number of victims increased to 10. In particular, due to the secondary impact, rescuers and firefighters who came to help died.
The next day after this attack, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation informed about the destruction of the command post of the operational-strategic group "Khortytsia" of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was allegedly located in Pokrovsk. While many leading Russian military analysts and Telegram channels ignored the report, others circulated claims that the strike had led to the removal of "Western curators" and "mercenaries". It was also emphasized in some reports that the strike led to the "liquidation" of the deputy head of the State Emergency Service of the Donetsk region Andriy Omelchenko.
As a lawyer of Truth Hounds Yuriy Uhhrin noted in a comment to Babel, despite the fact that the Russian Federation obviously justifies the double strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine, it is very difficult to qualify such actions of Russian propaganda as a crime against humanity.
"Based on the analysis carried out regarding calls by Russian propagandists to carry out double strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine, it is extremely difficult to establish the presence of a crime against humanity, persecution or direct and public calls for genocide. However, such appeals are extremely valuable from the point of view of proving the intent of Russian war criminals to deliberately use civilian objects in Ukraine as targets for attacks," Uhrin said.
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