Guided Missile Killed U.S. Aid Worker in Ukraine, Video Shows

NYT WORLD: Guided Missile Killed U.S. Aid Worker in Ukraine, Video Shows
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Malachy Browne
Section: World
Source: New York Times
Published Date: February 14, 2023 at 02:00AM

A Times analysis suggests that an intentional strike, not an indiscriminate attack, most likely killed Pete Reed. It is unclear whether the attackers knew he was with a group of aid workers.

Roughly a minute after an American paramedic, Pete Reed, and a team of aid workers began tending to a wounded civilian in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Feb. 2, they were attacked. Mr. Reed, a former U.S. Marine volunteering on the war’s front lines, was killed, and several of his colleagues were wounded.

Volunteers at the scene initially attributed the strike to indiscriminate Russian shelling. But a frame-by-frame analysis of a video taken at the location — and shared with The New York Times — shows that Mr. Reed, who was unarmed, died in a targeted strike by a guided missile almost certainly fired by Russian troops. 

See the Video

It is unclear if the Russians knew the group was made up of aid workers. But its convoy had markings that should have signaled to the Russians the type of vehicles they were hitting. One of the vehicles was clearly marked with a red cross, and the type of weapon used in the attack — a laser-guided antitank missile — is usually fired when a gunman sees and selects a target.

Still, the target in this case, a white Mercedes-Benz van, did not have any clearly visible medical markings, and while the aid workers were unarmed at least one medic was wearing military-style camouflage.

Image

Pete Reed is standing next to the white van. He is closer to the van than the other aid workers are. Credit...Erko Laidinen, Frontline Medics

The video shows Mr. Reed and the group of aid workers standing beside the white van, which they were using to transport humanitarian supplies. A missile flying parallel to the ground directly hits the van, destroying it and killing Mr. Reed.

Read More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/14/world/europe/russian-attack-aid-worker-video.html

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