‘Russians in Kherson train on civilians’: Deadly drones stalk south Ukraine

Kherson, Ukraine – In late November, Maria, a 22-year-old from Ponyativka in southern Ukraine, gave birth to a boy.

She named her second child Ivan, after his father who had been dreaming about a son since he joined the army in 2023.

Baby Ivan was the only child born that day in the district maternity hospital in Kherson, a city where more people die than are born and more decide to leave than stay.

According to the local administration, just 15 babies were born in December while 256 people died and 311 fled.

As Kherson dies out, its 83,000 residents – down from a population of more than 320,000 before the war – are focusing on how to survive relentless shelling by Russia and what locals have nicknamed “human safaris”.

Last summer, the Russian army appeared to adopt a new tactic.

They started flying dozens of drones in south Ukraine to follow cars and people in a video game-like chase. They have dropped explosives on civilian targets, wreaking havoc, according to Ukrainian officials.

In November and December, at least 16 people died in these attacks, while 144 were injured, local officials said.

According to city council estimates, while in June only 5 percent of injuries and deaths were caused by drones and the rest by artillery and missiles, six months later in December 2024, drones were responsible for 60 percent of attacks against civilians.

“Children do not have a normal childhood. My daughter does not go to kindergarten. I can’t even take her for a walk,” Maria said, her eyes fixed on her newborn.

The maternity ward she gave birth in was moved from the fourth floor to the basement as it was hit by Russian missiles on five different occasions for two years, from December 2022. Russia did not comment on any of these assaults.

Construction work to restore the hospital has begun.

Kherson was Ukraine’s first major city to fall to Russian forces, days after Moscow’s full-scale invasion began but Ukrainian troops have since retaken it.

A vast and strategic Black Sea port home to shipbuilding, pre-war Kherson was a vibrant coastal city rich in culture. In a 2021 study co-funded by the United Nations Development Programme, 80 percent of residents said it was a good place to live, work and raise a family.

But the war has changed everything.

The waterfront maternity hospital faces Russian troops occupying the opposite riverbank. Her village is no safer. Amid continuous shelling and drone attacks, she moved to a neighbouring settlement, where her family found some respite.

The move may have saved her life. In the summer, her house was destroyed in a drone attack.

“Sometimes it’s scary, but I’ve gotten used to it. My five-year-old daughter tells me, ‘Mum, look, there’s a drone buzzing.’ Children understand everything,” she said.

Fearful for her security, Maria requested Al Jazeera to withhold her surname and refused to be photographed.

‘Russians in Kherson do not simply terrorise the population, they train on civilians’

On most days, between 30 and 60 Russian drones fly over Kherson, local officials say.

Russia consistently claims it does not deliberately target civilians, a war crime under international law, but these denials have been refuted by Ukraine, global rights groups and witnesses.

“Russians in Kherson do not simply terrorise the population, they train on civilians. They practise in Kherson and then get transferred to [the eastern] Donetsk [region], where combat is more difficult due to close contact. We intercept many videos showing Russian soldiers hunting for people,” said Anton Yefanov, 44, Kherson’s deputy mayor.

In December and November, “drones have been penetrating further into the city, and Russians began hunting public and social transport,” he told Al Jazeera. “Shelling has also increased.”

At the time of publication, the Russian defence ministry had not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

In the streets of Kherson, the echo of explosions reverberates in the air with frightening frequency.

The city feels like a ghost town with islands of life. Concrete bus stops have been put in place to provide extra shelter to commuters, but they do not guarantee survival in case of shelling. Residents are often advised to stay at home.

Few cars ride the empty roads and even fewer pedestrians dare to walk. Most of those who chose to remain are elderly, unwilling, or unable to move to safer parts of Ukraine.

Some professionals have returned to Kherson because being internally displaced threatened their livelihoods.

Maria and her family lived in Odesa for several months, but prices were high and her salary was low so she travelled back home.

‘It was following me. In such situations of course you are afraid’

Aleksander Dorofeyev, a Kherson native, returned from Poland when the war began “to make himself useful”.

He works with the Polish Centre for International Aid, which provides humanitarian support to immobile and disabled people.

But helping those in need is fraught with risk.

In November, as he was checking on renovation work of outpatient clinics sponsored by his NGO, he noticed a drone buzzing above his car.

“It was following me. In such situations of course you are afraid. You need to accelerate the speed to be faster than the drone, but it can only happen if you are driving on a straight road, a highway. Drones can fly up to 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour,” he said.

“They appear out of nowhere, they watch you and if they are high up, you can’t really hear them before they drop a bomb. In the city, there is no way to escape them.”

In early January, a drone targeted the minibus his colleague was driving. The vehicle fell into pieces. The man is still fighting for his life in hospital.

“From an economic point of view, Kherson is a half-dead city, but from a humanitarian point of view, there are still people here,” said Yefanov, the deputy mayor. “Someone has to help them, fix their water supply, the heat, help the disabled. What scares me most is that I won’t be able to complete my work here.”

Some observers fear Kherson’s ordeal is unlikely to end soon, even as Ukrainians warm to the idea of peace talks.

In October 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared four occupied regions – the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk “People’s Republics”, Kherson and Zaporizhia – to be absorbed into Russia.

A month later, Ukraine liberated Kherson. Annexing it remains Russia’s goal, but this is unlikely, as the two armies are stuck in positional warfare on opposite sides of the Dnipro river.

“They want to capture Kherson but this is currently unrealistic. The Ukrainian military are hiding their whereabouts from the enemy drones so Russians hunt for civilians,” said Volodymyr Molchanov, an expert from the local Black Sea Center for Political and Social Research based in Odesa.

“It is an attempt to intimidate the population and force people to leave so that it will be easier for Russia to take over the territory and maintain its corridor to Crimea.”