Russian drones hunt civilians in Kherson ‘safari’

Drone attacks strike the southern city hundreds of times a day causing severe physical and psychological harm to the civilians below

It was a summer’s morning in Kherson. Tatiana and her 87-year-old father were making their way home after a food shop when she heard a sudden buzzing in the street.
She tilted her head upwards and saw a Russian kamikaze drone drop an explosive in the middle of a street packed with civilians.
Tatiana immediately started running, struggling to drag her dementia-stricken father with her. He does not understand that his country is at war. “I dropped and crawled on my stomach but did not raise my head … I just prayed we would get home,” she told The Telegraph.
Russia has been known to use kamikaze drones to drop explosives on Ukrainian soldiers but in the southern city of Kherson, where only the River Dnipro separates the territory from the threatening presence of Russian forces, they have increasingly been used to target civilians.
As a result, Kherson, Tatiana said, is transforming into a “human safari” where Russian drones are used to hunt down and drop grenades and other explosives on civilians trying to go about their everyday lives.
Five civilians were injured in the latest attack on Monday when hand grenades dropped from Russian army drones and exploded near a moving bus in the suburbs of Kherson.
At least two civilians were injured in that attack witnessed by Tatiana on Aug 28.
According to residents, Russia began targeting civilians with drones several months ago near the left bank of the River Dnipro, but the attacks have increasingly spread into the city centre and suburbs.
There were around 100 drone attacks per day in July and August, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson Oblast Military Administration.
This increased to a record high of 330 drone strikes and 224 explosive drops on Sept 9, according to Ukraine’s TSN news programme.
“Drones are a real pain for Kherson. Everyone is a target,” Mr Prokudin told the Kyiv Independent. “Under attack are people walking, driving, bicycling, going to work or standing by grocery stores.”
Anastasia, a 23-year-old aid worker and Tatiana’s niece, feels her home city has become increasingly dangerous by the Russian terror attacks.
“More and more residents of the city cannot leave the house, even for food, because there is a great possibility that they will not return home,” she told the Telegraph. “It was so lucky my aunt came home unharmed.”
Local authorities have strongly advised that civilians stay at home unless they are able to carry a tourniquet, a device that is used to stop life-threatening bleeding.
Aid workers such as Anastasia and Natalya, her colleague, are forced to wear body armour as they go to work and look after vulnerable Ukrainians.
The psychological impact of the attacks is taking its toll on Natalya. She often finds herself unable to sleep, instead lying awake about when the next attack might come.
She regularly finds herself sitting in her apartment, not knowing where or when a kamikaze drone will launch a devastating attack. When it happens, the sense of panic and fear is “overwhelming”, she says.
“The same question spins in your head; ‘when will this nightmare end?’” she told The Telegraph.
The city she grew up in and loves is now overwhelmed by constant air raid sirens in the middle of the night, the buzzing of drones, the whistle of shells and explosions. “All of this leads to depression,” she said.
This is not the future Kherson’s population had hoped for when Ukraine recaptured the city from Vladimir Putin’s forces in November 2022.
Instead, Russia has effectively “declared terrorism against a peaceful population”, Natalya said, but Kherson’s civilians remain determined to carry on anyway.
“People are afraid to go outside,” she told The Telegraph, adding: “Despite all this, life goes on, people go to work, children run to sports grounds … but not everyone is destined to return home.
“People have become calloused, they lose the meaning of life, indifference has appeared. People do not live, but live their lives,” she added.