KHERSON, Ukraine — Russian military drones are swarming the skies over the front-line city of Kherson, carrying out deadly attacks that appear to target civilians, according to Ukrainian officials.
"Since the first day of this year alone, the enemy has attacked the region [with drones] about 650 times," Oleksandr Prokudin, head of Kherson's regional military government, said in a post on the Telegram social media app earlier this month. "Seven people have died and 55 have been injured as a result of these attacks."
Not all the Russian strikes target civilians, but during a recent trip to Kherson, in southern Ukraine on the banks of the Dnipro River, NPR found people terrified by the constant threat.
"I've experienced it myself. The Russian drones hunt us constantly; it's like a safari," said Svitlana Budiukh, a 43-year-old resident who's chosen to stay in Kherson. "In the summer we could hide under the green trees, but now, in winter, the leaves have fallen and we're more exposed."
Budiukh said her husband was killed in Kherson when his car was struck by a Russian artillery shell. She described a terrifying existence in the city, as people try to go about their daily lives knowing death can come at any moment.
"Why do I stay? Because it's my city, these are my people," she said.
Budiukh spoke to NPR on a clear winter morning in a market square where elderly couples and families with children were out doing their shopping.
She and a friend, Natalia Savchenko, volunteer in Kherson, delivering food and other supplies to people trapped in their homes by the threat of Russia's relentless attacks. They told NPR the drone strikes escalated last summer and are now viewed by residents as a grim part of life.
"When it happens you look for anywhere to hide," said Savchenko, 68. "We run under the trees or into a shed or a garage. My God, we hide anywhere we can find."
According to Savchenko, her son, a civilian worker, was hit by a Russian drone in September. "It threw an incendiary bomb at his feet," she said. "He was in the hospital for two months, his legs are badly injured."
A city liberated from Russia, now besieged
From the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Kherson was a dangerous place. The city, once home to a quarter million people, was occupied by Russian soldiers until Ukraine's army pushed them out in November 2022.
The Russians didn't go far. Moscow's forces still occupy the far bank of the Dnipro River just a few miles away. They use artillery to shell Kherson daily. Russian drone pilots are able to operate within sight of Kherson's neighborhoods, which are still home to at least 60,000 people.
On Jan. 6, a Russian drone hit a civilian bus in Kherson, killing one person and injuring nine others. Jan. 12, a 57-year-old woman was hospitalized after a drone attack pelted her with shrapnel.
NPR wasn't able to confirm that Russian forces are deliberately killing civilians in Kherson, which would be a war crime under international law. Since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Kremlin has repeatedly denied targeting Ukraine's civilian population.
But Ukrainian officials say they have overwhelming evidence the attacks are intentional.
"The hunt continues"
Roman Kostenko, a member of Ukraine's parliament from the Kherson region with close ties to the military, said he believes the attacks are an act of terror and also a form of target practice.
"Russia uses [these attacks] to train their young pilots on Ukrainian civilian people," Kostenko said.
"They hunt us even when it's clear it's a woman or an elderly person or an emergency rescue vehicle," said Andrii Kovanyi, a spokesman for Kherson's police department. "The Russians [soldiers] don't hide it, they post about it online on social media."
People in Kherson told NPR this is one of the most chilling aspects of Russia's drone attacks. After appearing to target civilians, Russian soldiers sometimes post videos and photographs online where they boast about the violence.
"My own car was damaged in a drone attack," said Danil Tatarinov, who runs an internet company in Kherson. "I found a video of it on Russian social media channels."
He said the video, which appeared to be filmed from a drone's perspective, shows a grenade being dropped over his civilian car. The attack missed narrowly, causing no injuries, while damaging the rear bumper with shrapnel. NPR could not verify the origin or contents of the video.
Shaking his head, Tatarinov read the video's caption, written in Russian: "No luck this time," it said. "But the hunt continues."
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