"Liberators and protectors"
Russian Drones Hunt Civilians, Turn Kherson Into Deadly Training Ground
Alexander Query | Oct 15, 2024 | 20:42
“Two girls died,” says Slava, a Kherson local who survived a Russian drone attack, his scarred hands a painful reminder. He glances at the bus stop where we’ve paused, and twitches. “Let’s move,” he says. Bus stops, he knows too well, are prime targets.Once bustling with people waving Ukrainian flags, Kherson's Freedom Square now stands empty. The only buzzing sound is now synonymous with a certain doom and the clear, sunny sky—a death sentence for the locals who decided to stay.
Russian troops have taken up a whole new tactic to terrorize civilians in Kherson: explosive FPV drones. No one is safe in the city that has become the shadow of itself.
Ukrainian flag flutters on a pedestal in an empty square on Oct. 2, 2024 in Kherson. Residents of the right bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson are under constant threat of Russian shelling. Here, people always keep an eye on the sky. (Photo by Yevhenii Vasyliev/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)Russian FPV drones charged with explosives have been increasingly maiming and killing civilians—and the Russians are bragging about it on social media, sharing videos usually dubbed with snarky remarks on the effectiveness of their hit.
Up to 330 drone strikes and 224 explosives hit the city on September 9 alone, Ukrainian TV channel TSN reported. In August, Russia launched over 2,000 drones on Kherson and around the southern front line, adding up to the civilian casualties list every day.
The only way to walk in the city is under the tree lines. As summer is coming to an end, the falling leaves mean more victims in the martyr city of Kherson. Standing in the open is a death warrant, local police officer Andrii Kovina told us, while wearily looking at the sky in the tense expectation of a lethal buzzing sound.
“Every day here, we have people injured and killed, specifically civilians,” he said. “This is the greatest tragedy when a peaceful person who’s not even in a uniform is just attacked while walking.”
The sound of a close explosion echoes in the empty streets. Kovina shrugged and continued, unfazed. This is the new normal here. The day before, two guided bombs were launched on Kherson.
Meanwhile, Russian FPV drones are relentlessly hunting ordinary people who dare to walk in the open. Here, a grocery trip can be deadly.
“This is banal hunting, the terror of the civilian population when an elderly person riding a bicycle or barely walking down the street is hunted by a drone. What can you call it?” he asked, knowing the answer.
Hunting civilians with precisionSlava’s injuries bear witness to Russia’s attacks on civilians, a retaliation that never stopped since the Kremlin’s troops retreated to the other side of the river in 2022. Six people were recently injured when a Russian FPV drone dropped an explosive on a minibus waiting for passengers on September 8, 2024.
Slava was helping fellow locals on a humanitarian point when the Russian artillery attacked it a year ago. Not everyone survived. . . .
https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/russian-drones-hunt-civilians-turn-kherson-into-deadly-training-ground-3030
