Paths of bullets are seen during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kherson on July 26. In some instances, a first drone strikes a target, a second observes and a third will drop another charge on the same location.Stringer/Reuters
The drone attack came while Dmytro was waiting for a bus. He heard a noise of something falling onto the roof of the bus shelter, and in the next moment had blood on his face.
The woman next to him was also injured and started screaming, he said, recalling last week’s attack in the Kherson suburbs. (The Globe and Mail is identifying civilians by their first names to protect their safety.)
“You can hear drones and see them all of the time around you,” Dmytro said, adding that these drones – often referred to as “kamikaze” drones – destroy roads and burn houses.
Dmytro has been helping to evacuate local people from the region, and delivering goods, but the drones have made his daily car trips dangerous. “I don’t know if I will be back alive. I can’t walk on the street. I run from one tree to another, trying to find at least some kind of hidden place.”
Over the past three months, drone attacks on civilians have become an everyday occurrence in Ukraine’s southern region, where only the Dnipro River separates the territory from Russian forces.
According to Kherson regional military administration, 2,700 drone attacks were recorded on civilians in September. Six people were killed and 148 injured.
“They are dropping mines where people are walking and cars are driving,” said Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, spokesperson for the Kherson regional administration. He believes Russian soldiers are out for revenge. “It’s terror against civilians.”
Ambulance paramedic Vitalii Tokariev said he gets about 10 calls a day about civilians attacked with drones. “If before we provided first aid to the drivers or people injured by artillery, these days it’s civilians who were in their yards or walking on the street while drones targeted them,” he said.
“Only during last week we received a call when a drone attacked a 75-year-old lady on the street. Or when a funeral service brought a dead body to the morgue and at the same time a drone targeted them, injured two men in the legs. Russians can’t be unaware whom they are targeting.”
His colleagues have also been attacked by drones while on duty. A paramedic and driver were injured when a drone shattered the ambulance windows.
Russian soldiers are using drones not only to drop explosives, but also to monitor what is happening on the ground, trying to find army positions. “They are working in big groups,” said Andrii Kovanyi, press officer for the Kherson region police.
In some instances, a first drone strikes a target, a second observes and a third will drop another charge on the same location. This has limited movement in the city, Mr. Kovanyi said. “Drones targeted everything – ambulance, police and emergency services cars, following civilians, burning their homes.”
Natalia, a volunteer who delivers humanitarian aid in Kherson region, said she has also faced drone attacks. “We had finished delivering humanitarian help. I was filling out documents when I heard the noise of a drone. I just shouted to my colleagues to hide in the building and in three seconds after, a kamikaze drone fell to the roof of the building.” Fortunately, she added, they were not injured.
It has become almost impossible to deliver water and food to those who have stayed in their homes, she said. “After a drone fell during our distribution of hot food, we decided to stop deliveries. We can’t risk people’s lives.”
Natalia added that drone attacks in the region are like a safari where the Russians hunt the Ukrainian people. “It’s elderly and single people who don’t want to leave their homes, and on them and on us that Russians are sending their drones.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Kherson as being in eastern Ukraine. Kherson is in southern Ukraine. This version has been updated.