Firefighters put out a fire at a warehouse after shelling of Kherson, Ukraine, September 19, 2023
Ukraine War, Day 1,202: Russia Bombards Kyiv and Odesa
Human Rights Watch has documented at least 45 drone strikes by Russian forces in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine that “appeared to deliberately target civilians and civilian objects including infrastructure”.
HRW’s report reinforces the finding of the UN that the Russians have periodically killed and injured civilians living in an area stretching more than 100 kilometers along the right (west) bank of the Dnipro River, including in and near the city of Kherson.
The UN concluded:
So far, almost 150 civilians have been killed and hundreds more have been injured….The drone attacks have been widespread, systematic, and “conducted as part of a coordinated state policy”.
The Kherson city council assessed that between May 1 and December 16, 2024, drone attacks murdered at least 30 civilians and injured 483.
Human Rights Watch’s findings are based on interviews with 59 people, most in person in Kherson in November 2024. Among them are 36 survivors of and witnesses to Russian drone attacks. The researchers analyzed 83 videos of drone attacks uploaded to Russian military-affiliated Telegram channels as well as footage and photographs from witnesses.
In eight of its cases, HRW corroborated witness accounts with videos. The footage established that the nature of the target was known to the drone operator, indicating a deliberate attack.
Using quadrocopter drones, Russian forces attacked civilians while they were cycling, walking, driving, or taking public transport to and from work, and in their homes. They targeted healthcare facilities, ambulances, and their personnel, including rescue workers responding to initial drone attacks. Assaults were carried out on grocery stores; vehicles delivering produce to stores; and gas, water, and electrical infrastructure — and on municipal workers attempting to repair the damage.
HRW identified quadcopter drones manufactured by three different entities: two China-based commercial drone companies, DJI and Autel, and the Russian entity Sudoplatov, which describes itself as a “volunteer organization”.
Attacking The Cyclist
On September 28, 2024, Anastasia Pavlenko, a 23-year-old mother of two, was cycling to an appointment in Kherson when she saw a drone take off from the roof of a house and begin to follow her.
The drone tracked Pavlenko for nearly 300 meters. As she approached the Antonivka Bridge, the drone dropped a munition. The explosion injured her in the neck, leg, and rib. In shock and covered in blood, she biked on flat tires toward the underpass.
Pavlenko received first aid before being taken to a hospital in the neighboring Mykolaiv region, where doctors operated on her broken leg.
She still has a metal fragment in her neck and has not visited Kherson since the attack.
“If not for the drones, I would still live there,” she says.
