Animal Rescue Workers Shelled by Russian Militants in Kherson

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On June 14, 2023, while conducting animal rescue operations near Kherson, independent aid workers and humanitarians from Four Paws Rescue and House of Hope, along with journalists covering the events, came under shelling on the outskirts of the city. Among them was Offbeat Research correspondent and frontline photojournalist Dylan Burns, who was covering rescue operations as the group was shelled.

Several days later, a Telegram channel affiliated with militants belonging to PMC Livadia, a private military company under the auspices of Sergey Aksyonov and the Russian army’s combat army reserve program, shared footage of the strike.

We interviewed the witnesses and survivors of the shelling, reviewed dozens of hours of footage, probed open-source materials, and spoke to experts in international humanitarian law to gain further insight into the nature of the attack and the parties involved.

Watch below:

Published by Jett Goldsmith

Jett Goldsmith is a civil society researcher, conflict analyst, and war crimes investigator based in Denver, Colorado. His work has focused on the nature of the Syrian state and various substate structures, the dynamics of conflict and wartime society in Syria, and the impact of disinformation operations on digital and human ecosystems.