In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Russian drone pilots are hunting for people. Residents of the city on the Dnieper River talk about the “safari“. “The Russians are using the residents of Kherson to train young drone pilots”, Victoria tells ARD. For her, her hometown has become dangerous. That's why she and her 10-year-old daughter Elisaveta were forced to flee.
Andreas Tölke from the Berlin-based organization “Be an Angel“ regularly delivers humanitarian aid to the city. And he helps people like Victoria to settle in a safe place. He points to a drone that has become entangled in a fishing net, of the kind that are stretched over almost every street in Kherson. "These are drones that you can order from Amazon if you decide to peek into your neighbor's garden," he told ARD.
Thousands of civilian casualties
The manhunt carried out by the Russian army in Kherson is a targeted terrorist campaign - small FPV drones are used, to which explosives are attached. According to UN data, hundreds of passers-by have already been killed and thousands injured in recent years.
"They are equipped with a camera, and the pilot is on the other side of the river and follows you. He sees you running," says Tölke.
His Ukrainian partner organization “Sylni bo Vilni“ (translated as "Strong because we are free") he has equipped with a special gun for protection, which at close range shoots a net that captures the drone. Ihor Chorny and his team rescue people from the most dangerous areas of the city. "When the drone's battery runs out, they don't return to the left bank, they attack whoever they come across - no matter who it is," he told ARD.
"You cross yourself, say a prayer and leave"
Countless videos document these crimes. Drones attacking people in their cars, on buses or while they are riding bicycles. For the remaining 60,000 people in Kherson, there are no safe places. Most try to spend as little time on the streets as possible. They move quickly - running from tree to tree, from building to building.
“We try to survive. We cross ourselves, say our prayers and leave“, says pensioner Nina, who is sitting in the basement of “Sylni bo Vilni“. The organization has set up a kind of community center so that people have a place to meet and communicate, writes the German public media. The place is protected by sandbags and windows boarded up with pressed boards.
“Many here lost their tempers during the Russian occupation“, Chorny told the German publication. In 2022, Russian troops took over the city, torturing, raping and killing people in the basements. Since then, Russian soldiers have continued to terrorize Kherson. The distance as the crow flies to the other bank of the Dnieper, which is still under Russian occupation, is only a few hundred meters.
The situation is becoming more and more dangerous
Since then, the residents of Kherson have been trying to cope with new and new dangers, says Olena. She leads first aid courses at “Sylni bo Vilni“, runs information campaigns about mines, as well as domestic violence. “In such circumstances, people become morally exhausted and aggressive,“ says Olena.
Viktoria is exhausted from the war. In fact, she does not want to leave her hometown, but she can no longer stand it. She has packed her entire life and that of her daughter into two large suitcases. Andreas Tölke drove them to the bus station in Mykolaiv, about an hour away from Kherson. There they will be taken in by the humanitarian organization “Be an Angel”, which has organized a tourist bus that will take them to Germany.
“It makes me very sad that people are being forced to leave their homeland. That they have no chance to stay here“, says Tölke. But in Kherson, where the Russian military has turned people into living targets, the situation is becoming increasingly dangerous.
Ihor Chorny recently almost died in a Russian drone attack. He has a ski rack on his car, on which he has mounted a drone jammer. “They are shelling us with bombs, with drones, with artillery. We have no electricity or water. But we are enduring because there is only one thing that is even worse than daily terror - the Russian occupation,”, he tells ARD.
Author: Rebecca Barth ARD