Russia targets Ukrainian civilians in its drone strikes – Financial Times

Russia is using civilians in Ukrainian cities to hone in its kamikaze drone attacks and improve drone operators' skills. Western media believe that civilians in Ukraine are a target of an unprecedented Russian experiment. Source: Financial Times

Details: "Kherson's civilians have been, since midsummer, the target of an experiment without precedent in modern European warfare: a concerted Russian campaign to empty a city by stalking its residents with attack drones," the FT reported.

Oleksandr Prokudin, Head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, said: "They are hunting us. Imagine what that does to a person, the psychological impact." According to Prokudin, the Kherson Oblast Prosecutor's Office and the Ukrainian police, Kherson and neighbouring villages along the western bank of the Dnipro River have been subjected to more than 9,500 attacks using small drones since mid-July, which claimed the lives of at least 37 people and injured hundreds more.

Prokudin said that Russia has deployed some of its "best drone units" across the Dnipro River.

According to Prokudin, Russian forces are launching the most advanced models of drones from the opposite bank of the river from the city centre in order to improve their combat techniques and train new drone operators. Dozens of videos of drone attacks on civilians have been posted on Russian military and pro-military Telegram channels. The Eyes on Russia project by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), a London-based non-profit focused on exposing human rights abuses and war crimes,  analysed and verified 90 of them in a new report.

CIR found that the "overwhelming majority" of attacks were directed against either moving or stationary vehicles. According to Prokudin and other officials, the Ukrainian side suspects that Kherson was used for "target practice". The devices used, including FPV drones, Chinese-made Mavic drones, and sometimes larger Russian military Lancets, target vulnerable, everyday locations such as crowded markets, petrol stations, cafes, post offices, and humanitarian aid centres.

The FT notes that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Kherson Oblast's population has fallen from 1 million to 158,000.

Kherson used to be home to 250,000 residents, and now has only 60,000.

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