4 police officers killed and 4 injured in mine blast in Kherson Oblast

Four Ukrainian police officers were killed and four others were injured when Russian mines exploded in Kherson Oblast on 7 December.

Source: Ihor Klymenko, Head of the National Police of Ukraine, on Facebook

Quote: "The staff of the National Police of Ukraine lost four colleagues from the Cherkasy Oblast Police today. Mykhailo Kuratchenko, the Head of the Main Department of the National Police in Cherkasy Oblast; Ihor Melnyk, an explosives technician; Serhii Nenada, a detector dog handler; and Vadym Perizhok, assistant to the duty officer of the patrol police response sector of the Uman District Police Department, were conducting stabilisation measures when enemy mines blew up in Kherson Oblast.

Four other policemen were injured, and doctors are battling to save their lives."

Details: Mykhailo Kuratchenko personally led the Cherkasy Oblast combined police detachment in Kherson Oblast. Klymenko said he was "an effective manager, a strong-willed and brave policeman who always upheld the oath".

Ihor Melnyk, Serhii Nenada and Vadym Perizhok, as devoted police officers, "served, protected, and brought peace and security back to the liberated part of Kherson Oblast".

The Cherkasy Oblast police officers were serving as part of a combined detachment in Kherson Oblast, headed by Mykhailo Kuratchenko.

On 7 December, the police set off on their latest mission - to check information provided by local residents about a cache left by the occupiers.

A specialised operational group led by Kuratchenko, with a dog handler and explosives technician, arrived at the site where the occupiers’ positions used to be, near the village of Fedorivka. They seized ammunition, explosives and weapons in order to dispose of them.

"On their way back, the police officers fell into a mine trap laid by the occupiers, which set off a buried landmine made of ammunition for large-calibre artillery. The guys were blown up on a cascade of enemy mines and ammunition," the National Police reports.

Three of the police officers were killed instantly and one later died in hospital. Doctors are battling to save the lives of the other four.

Klymenko expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

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