Russian pilots appear to be hunting Ukrainian civilians

KHERSON, A REGIONALFPV capital in southern Ukraine, endured eight months of Russian occupation before liberated it in November 2022. The Russians retreated to the other side of the Dnieper river, but have indiscriminately shelled the city ever since. In June 2023 they blew up the nearby , flooding low-lying areas of Kherson. Now the city’s 80,000 inhabitants, down from a prewar population of 280,000, face a new sort of misery. For six months have been attacking civilians daily, chasing cars and pedestrians through the streets in what locals call a “safari”.There have been more than 1,000 drone strikes since last summer, injuring over 500 people and killing 36, according to municipal authorities. Surveillance drones patrol high up; smaller attack drones (known as s, or first-person-view drones), with a flying time of 20-40 minutes, sit on rooftops to conserve battery power. The munitions dropped are often makeshift: mortar shells, grenades, canisters containing shrapnel or darts, or bottles of petrol that ignite.Shops, schools, clinics, private houses, delivery vans, buses, firetrucks and other first responders are routinely targeted. Several administrative officials have been wounded. In one case, says Roman Mrochko, the head of the military authority in Kherson, a minibus “was almost completely destroyed, but the driver heroically saved the injured people by driving, you could say on scrap metal, to the hospital.” In the riverside neighbourhoods where the attacks are concentrated, designated “red zones” by Russians on Telegram channels, life has been throttled. There is no gas, water, electricity or municipal heat. Public transport is suspended. Ambulances wait outside the area for police in armoured cars to ferry the wounded to them.The very few people still living in these areas, mostly pensioners, hardly dare to go out. People listen for the tell-tale buzz and run from wall to wall, taking cover under trees. They avoid using cars, which are easy targets, in part because it is hard for drivers to hear approaching drones. When people do drive, they speed to outrun the attackers. Rain, which hampers drone flights, sometimes provides a bit of respite.Iryna Sokur, the director of the Kherson Oncological Hospital, which was the only cancer facility in the region, describes a litany of attacks against patients, staff and ambulances. “On November 11th two ambulances were burnt in a drone attack. The next day a third was hit. On November 26th the head of our lab was killed on her way to work.” One man was killed in his car in the parking lot as he waited to pick up a relative after their treatment. Ms Sokur herself has been chased by drones on two occasions. In early winter, as the situation became untenable, almost all the patients were evacuated. On December 20th two glide bombs destroyed the hospital.The purpose of the Russian campaign is not clear. Mr Mrochko suggests the Russians are training drone pilots on Kherson’s civilians. Or it may be a tactic to establish a buffer zone, or to prepare for an offensive to retake part of the west bank of the river. The incidence of artillery strikes in Kherson has also been rising. The bombardment that smashed the oncological hospital on December 20th was the largest since the city’s liberation, a barrage of more than 1,000 shells that covered a failed attempt by Russian forces to advance closer to the city.Belkis Wille of Human Rights Watch, a rights watchdog, is compiling a report on the Kherson attacks. She says they are “deliberate” and may be calculated “to force civilians to leave the area”. Civilian casualties often result from indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, Ms Wille notes, but the drones target civilians precisely.Reports of Russian drone attacks on civilians elsewhere near Ukraine’s front lines are increasing. On the battlefield, some lethal drones already have a degree of autonomy, with artificial intelligence and object-recognition software to keep homing in on their targets even in the face of electronic jamming. Lethal drones with human pilots seem brutal enough, but the step to fully autonomous ones seems inevitable. Intentionally targeting civilians with drones is a war crime, but it is effective at depopulating areas. “I think what’s happening in Kherson is a harbinger,” says Ms Wille.