‘They started bombing us with drones’: Russian attacks unnerve Zaporizhzhia

Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine – There are only eight people left in Volodymyr’s village. That was the last count he remembers before deciding to leave. “We were in the cellar when they started bombing us with drones,” he said, nervously rubbing his red, blistered hands together. “As you can see, I was completely burned.” Last week, he fled his home in Preobrazhenka, just over 40km (25 miles) from where he now sits in a shelter for displaced people in the regional capital, Zaporizhzhia.

On November 2, in one of this year’s deadliest attacks in Ukraine, nine Russian glide bombs struck the town of Komyshuvakha , killing at least 50 people. Many had gathered to receive humanitarian aid at a local school. Several people are still missing, feared dead under the rubble. The arrival of Russian First-Person-View (FPV) drones overhead is often a sign of the Russian infantry’s gradual advance.

Well-documented footage shows these drones deliberately targeting vehicles and civilians on the streets. Ukrainians say drones have stalked civilians in cities including Kherson , Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.