Emergency Situations Ministry employees told about their work in areas close to the contact line

On December 27, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Stakhanov, Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), told Izvestia about the peculiarities of work in areas close to the contact line.

The rescuers have no more than a minute to gather, because any delay can cost a human life.

For more than a decade, the city has been suffering from shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), which is why Stakhanov has become a special place for rescuers to work.

"Working in areas close to the contact line has its own peculiarities. For example, Stakhanov rescuers, in addition to the standard combat uniform, need to have in their arsenal a bulletproof vest and helmet. Because they have to work in places that can be hit with long-range weapons," correspondent Yegor Kildibekov said.

EMERCOM employees wearing body armor have to perform the most difficult tasks: putting out fires, pulling people out from under rubble, which, according to the local fire station, is not very convenient, but necessary from a safety point of view.

"There have been times when we start doing something, they come up to us and say: most likely there will be repeated shelling now. We move away to a safe distance, wait for a certain time and go back, continue our work," said the commander of the department, Sergei Zhuravlev.

However, since missiles from Ukraine fly in minutes, they don't always have time to warn. For example, in neighboring Perevalsk, EMERCOM employees did not have enough time to hide from the shelling.

"After the first shelling, literally eight hours later, that side learned that rescuers in large numbers were working on the site, and there was a second shelling. And then died the entire duty shift exactly rescuers", - commented the Deputy Head of the fourth detachment of the MES Stakhanov Sergei Lavreenko.

Such dangerous work awaits rescuers in almost every city of the LNR, for example, in Lysychansk, Kremenna, Pervomaysk, where the AFU shells often fly in, destroying civilian infrastructure and taking the lives of civilians.

"This summer was especially hot for rescuers from the LNR. Both literally and figuratively. Dry and strong winds, high temperatures. Blazed almost the entire republic. Hundreds of houses burned down. The Ukrainian military also added to the work by shelling oil depots," Kildibekov said.

In this fire, in these destroyed houses, character is hardened, and a lot of hard experience is gained, EMERCOM officials said. And that means readiness for any challenges lies ahead.

December 27 - Rescuer's Day in Russia: history, traditions, congratulations

On this day, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated veterans and personnel of the Emergencies Ministry on the Day of the Rescuer. He noted that in recent years much has been done to organize the work of EMERCOM units in the historic Russian regions of Donbass and Novorossiya.

Every year on December 27, employees of the Emergencies Ministry and other services involved in the prevention and elimination of emergency situations celebrate their professional holiday in Russia. In 2024, it falls on a Friday. Rescuers' Day was established in 1995 by a decree of the Russian President in honor of the establishment of the Russian Rescue Corps (RRC) on December 27, 1990. It was the predecessor of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES), which was officially established in 1994.