When two Russian bombs hit Kateryna Lahuta's seafood business in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia last month, they shattered the last sense of security the 41-year-old entrepreneur had left.
Russian forces have been dug in just south of Zaporizhzhia, a manufacturing hub of around 700,000 people, since the earliest weeks of Moscow's 2022 invasion, hammering it with missiles and drones. But a new wave of attacks has made life deadlier for residents, part of Russia's escalating air war on Ukrainian cities as its forces make only grinding progress along the front lines.
Standing amid the charred remains of the processing facility that once supplied her stores, Lahuta said the attacks had driven away customers and made long-term planning almost impossible, while the demand for soldiers had left businesses short of labour. She said the intensity of the bombardment had changed sharply in recent months, describing the current situation as "just a 'safari'."
Ukrainians have adopted the term "safari" to describe drones hunting down civilians or vehicles in the street, a danger long faced by residents of Kherson, a smaller front-line city to the south. Reuters reporters visiting Lahuta's business had to take cover after hearing the buzz of a first-person-view, or FPV, drone, the small, agile aircraft loaded with explosives and piloted by video that have turned Ukraine's front lines into what has been described as a kill zone.
Attacks aimed at scaring the public
Russia has denied targeting civilians since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But officials in Zaporizhzhia say Moscow is now seeking to sow panic as well as inflict damage, striking the city more frequently and using FPV drones for the first time alongside larger, more destructive glide bombs.
Zaporizhzhia is the capital of one of four Ukrainian regions Russia has claimed as its own, despite controlling only about three-quarters of the territory. Russian ground troops have failed to advance along a narrow corridor south of the city, where Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance in recent months. From that position, however, Russian FPV drones have been striking groups of civilians, vehicles and public transport, particularly in the city's south, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov. Speaking from an underground school converted into a bomb shelter, Fedorov said Russia was deliberately maximising pressure on the civilian population. Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
FPV drones have been developed with extended range, while air-launched glide bombs, of the kind that struck Lahuta's business, cannot be intercepted without more advanced air defences.
Killer drones target Zaporizhzhia's buses
In the centre of Zaporizhzhia, cafes and streams of commuters lend an appearance of normality despite frequent air-raid alerts, though even on Friday evenings the city feels subdued. In the neighbourhood surrounding the engine manufacturer Motor Sich, many office and residential buildings still bear the scars of repeated bombardment. In the southern Kosmos district, roads are being fitted with a canopy of drone netting to protect against FPVs that have struck vehicle windscreens and roofs in recent weeks.
Two private bus drivers on a route serving Kosmos said the rise in attacks had frightened both drivers and passengers. One driver, who declined to give his name, said the netting "won't save you from the big ones."
According to Fedorov, less than 5% of enemy FPV drones get through Ukrainian air defences, though on the worst days, which occur several times a month, that can still mean up to 10 drones causing injury or damage. The city's transit authority has begun equipping bus drivers with drone monitors and is testing shatterproof glass, its director, Volodymyr Sukhachov, said. He added that 12 city-run buses or tramcars had been damaged by FPVs or larger munitions this year, but that there were no plans to reduce services.
Ania Syvova, a 34-year-old seamstress whose husband is fighting in the war, saw an FPV drone slam into a nearby bus last month as she was returning home to the south of the city. Reflecting on her escape, she said with a smile that she must have "a good guardian angel."
Residents learn to live with danger
Syvova, who sends her six-year-old daughter to an underground kindergarten, said she and her child had adapted to the dangers of daily life, adding that although it sounded awful, they had grown used to it because they had no alternative.
Russia is employing similar tactics in other front-line cities, including Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, where Mayor Ihor Terekhov said FPV drone attacks had become "one of the main instruments of terror," reporting 45 strikes registered last month. Fedorov said Russia had also been striking Zaporizhzhia four to six times a day with glide bombs, which he described as flying unpredictably. On Sunday, one person was killed and 31 were wounded when Russia dropped eight bombs on residential areas within an hour and a half, he told Ukrainian television. Recent strikes have tended to fall around midday and early evening, a pattern residents described as a chilling new routine.
Outside her damaged apartment building, Tetiana, a 38-year-old government employee, said Russian forces had bombed her neighbourhood six times within a week last month. She said she was torn between wanting to leave and needing to stay, since people relied on her to keep services running. Describing her state of mind, she said she was "already totally empty."
Source: Reuters
