KHERSON: When Olena Horlova leaves home or drives through town outside the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, she fears that she\u2019s a target. She believes that Russian drones could be waiting on a rooftop, along the road or aiming for her car.<\/p>\n
To protect herself and her two daughters, the girls stay indoors, and she stays alert \u2014 sometimes returning home at night along dark roads without headlights so as not to be seen.<\/p>\n
After living through the occupation, refusing to cooperate with Russian forces and hiding from them, Horlova, like so many other residents, found that even after her town was liberated in 2022, the ordeal didn\u2019t end.<\/p>\n
Kherson was among the first places where Russian forces began using short-range, first-person view, or FPV, drones against civilians. The drones are equipped with livestreaming cameras that let operators see and select their targets in real time. The tactic later spread more than 300 kilometers (185 miles) along the right bank of the Dnipro River, across the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.<\/p>\n
The United Nations\u2019 Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says the attacks leave little doubt about their intent. In an October report, the commission said that the attacks have repeatedly killed and wounded civilians, destroyed homes and forced thousands to flee, concluding that they amount to the crimes against humanity of murder and forcible transfer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live with the hope that one day this will finally end,\u201d Horlova said, her voice trembling. \u201cWhat matters for us is a ceasefire, or for the front line to be pushed further away. Then it would be easier for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hunting those who survived<\/p>\n
Horlova lives in Komyshany, a village just outside Kherson and only 4 kilometers (2\u00bd miles) from the Dnipro River, where the level of intense attacks has remained the same, despite Ukrainian forces retaking the city from Russian occupation in November 2022 \u2014 about nine months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 of that year.<\/p>\n
But the war didn\u2019t end there. Instead, it shifted into a phase in which the area has effectively become what locals and the military term a \u201chuman safari,\u201d describing it as a testing ground where people are often the target of drone attacks.<\/p>\n
Horlova says that FPVs often land on rooftops when their batteries run low and then wait out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people, cars or even a cyclist appear, the drone suddenly lifts off and drops the explosive,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s gotten to the point where they even drop them on animals \u2014 cows, goats.\u201d<\/p>\n
She believes that civilians are hunted as \u201crevenge\u201d for the celebrations that broke out when Kherson was liberated.<\/p>\n
The report from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says the attacks have spread terror among civilians and violated their right to life and other fundamental human rights. Investigators found that Russian units on the occupied left bank of the Dnipro carried out the strikes and identified specific drone units, operators and commanders involved. They also noted that Russian Telegram channels routinely share videos of the attacks, often with mocking captions and threats of more.<\/p>\n
The UN commission said that it examined Russian claims that Ukrainian forces had launched drone attacks on civilians in occupied areas, unable to conclude its investigation because it lacked access to the territory, couldn\u2019t ensure witness safety and didn\u2019t receive answers from Russian authorities.<\/p>\n
Invisible dome<\/p>\n
Interceptions obtained by The Associated Press from the 310th Separate Marine Electronic Warfare Battalion show Russian FPV drones that appear to be hunting for vehicles. The videos capture drones flying low over roads and locking onto moving or parked cars \u2014 often pickups, supply vehicles, sedans and even clearly marked ambulances \u2014 before diving for a strike.<\/p>\n
The commander of the 310th Battalion, which protects the skies over 470 kilometers (nearly 300 miles) of southern Ukraine, including Kherson, says at least 300 drones fly toward the city every day. In October alone, the number of drones that flew over Kherson was 9,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis area is like a training ground,\u201d said the battalion\u2019s commander, Dmytro Liashok, a 16-year military veteran and one of Ukraine\u2019s early pioneers in electronic warfare. \u201cThey bring new Russian crews here to gain experience before sending them elsewhere.\u201d The AP couldn\u2019t independently verify the claim.<\/p>\n
Despite the sheer volume of drones \u2014 a figure that excludes other types of weapons like artillery and glide bombs \u2014 his forces manage to neutralize more than 90 percent, he said.<\/p>\n
According to the UN human rights office, short-range drone attacks have become the leading cause of civilian casualties near the front line. Local authorities say that since July 2024, more than 200 civilians have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded in three southern regions, with most victims being men. Nearly 3,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed.<\/p>\n
During a surprise visit to Kherson in November, Angelina Jolie described the constant overhead threat as \u201ca heavy presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a moment when we had to pause and wait while a drone flew overhead,\u201d she wrote on Instagram. \u201cI was in protective gear, and for me it was just a couple of days. The families here live with this every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Human hunting<\/p>\n
At one of Kherson\u2019s main hospitals treating drone victims, 70-year-old Nataliia Naumova is recovering after a strike by a Shahed drone, which carries a heavier explosive than FPV drones, left her with a blast injury to her left leg on Oct. 20.<\/p>\n
She says the strike hit during the night as she waited at a school in the village of Inzhenerne, where she had been temporarily sheltered, for an evacuation bus that was due to arrive the next morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were so many drones flying over us,\u201d she said, adding that she rarely left home even after its windows were shattered and boarded up. \u201cPeople there survive, not live. I never thought such a tragedy would happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Yevhen Haran, the hospital\u2019s deputy medical chief, says the injuries from drone strikes range from amputations to fatal wounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s simply hunting for people. There\u2019s no other name for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He says patients wounded in Russian attacks, including drone strikes, arrive at the hospital every day. Last month alone, it treated 85 inpatients and 105 outpatients with blast injuries, all from shelling and drone strikes. It\u2019s also the only hospital in the area equipped to handle the most serious cases.<\/p>\n
Haran himself came under FPV drone fire on Aug. 26 while driving from nearby Mykolaiv with his wife. Rescuers stopped their car on the highway, warning that a drone was overhead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pulled in behind them. The drone circled and, on the next pass, flew straight into their vehicle \u2014 the driver\u2019s door,\u201d he recalled. Shrapnel tore through the front car, while his, parked behind, shielded him.<\/p>\n
He reached the hospital with a hypertensive crisis and was later treated for a concussion. \u201cSometimes I still lose words and feel unsteady,\u201d he said. \u201cIt all happened in less than 10 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
For people in Kherson, the experience of occupation, and the moment the city was freed, still shapes how they endure the constant drone attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe held out until liberation \u2014 we\u2019ll hold out until peace as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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