In the city of Kherson, southern Ukraine, civilians have started to hope for heavy rain – the only weather conditions that prevent Russian drones from flying overhead, they say.
Drone attacks on ordinary people living here have sharply increased since the beginning of fall, with residents reporting Russian drone attacks on pedestrians, cars, buses and even an ambulance, according to local officials.
And the injury reports suggest that drones are targeting civilians – in some cases hitting elderly people and children.
Last week, a 76-year-old woman suffered serious injuries when her car was hit in an urban, residential district in the center of Kherson, according to the local military administration. In another October attack on the outskirts of the city, in the suburb of Antonivka, officials said a 69-year-old woman was killed when a drone dropped explosives on a public bus.
Authorities said at least 14 people have been killed by drones since the beginning of September, with a further 222 adults and three children injured.
“They don’t care who they shoot at. Grandma, grandpa, it doesn’t matter. Man, woman, it doesn’t matter,” said Tetyana Yakovleva, 47, a factory worker and humanitarian volunteer from the Antonivka suburb. Locals have nicknamed the street leading there “the road of death,” as it’s in close range of nearby Russian forces and was once a focal point of the fighting.Kherson is the largest Ukrainian city to sit on the front line and was the first major city to fall under Russian occupation, in early March 2022, remaining in enemy hands until it was liberated eight months later. In June last year, parts of the city were flooded when the Nova Kakhovka dam, 36 miles up the Dnipro river in Russian-held territory, was destroyed. Today, the threat of occupation still looms just across the river, where Russian military positions are literally within sight.
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