Ukraine War30 May, 20263 min read
Russian Drone Strikes Kill People in Nikopol, Kherson, and Pokrovska
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Drone strikes hit civilian buses in Nikopol and the Kherson region. Kherson residents fear drones and adapt daily life, including protective nets.
Drone and shelling tolls
Russian drone strikes and Russian bombardments killed people across Ukraine and also hit Russia, with La Libre.be reporting that in Nikopol a Russian drone strike on a bus killed at least 4 people and injured 16, and with Oleksandre Prokoudine saying in Telegram messages that in Kherson a Russian bombardment killed at least four people including three aged 60 to 72 and wounded seven in a residential area. In the region of Dnipropetrovsk, La Libre.be said Russian bombardments killed an 11-year-old child in Pokrovska and injured three people, and it added that two other people were injured in an attack in Pavlograd. La Libre.be also reported that about 1,000 km away in Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack hit the district of Alexandrovsky in the region of Vladimir, where governor Alexandre Avdeev said one drone hit a residential building of two apartments and killed two adults and their son while their daughter, five, survived and was hospitalized for burns.
In the same report, Zelensky said on social networks: "Quand une telle terreur contre des êtres humains et la vie se poursuit chaque jour, bloquer de nouvelles sanctions contre la Russie, essayer d'affaiblir les sanctions ou de négocier avec la Russie serait indécent". La Libre.be further tied the violence to the front line by describing Kherson as a city in southern Ukraine where Russian bombardment killed residents in a residential zone and by placing the drone attack in Russia’s Vladimir region in the north-east of Moscow.
Kherson under drones
In Kherson, residents described daily movement under drone threat and the way traffic and daily life are shaped by the risk of attacks, with La Croix quoting Oleksandr saying: "There are no traffic lights, everyone is afraid of drones and drives like maniacs, and this is what it yields."
La Croix placed that quote at the intersection of Ilya Koulyk Street and Ouchakov Boulevard, where it described brakes screeching and metal buckles after two gray Renaults collided in the crossroads.
Mediapart, meanwhile, described Kherson residents as targeted, hunted, and shot at daily by the Russian army, and it said that on Wednesday, March 11, another attack there wounded twenty people.
In the BBC report on bus routes, Anatoly Dmytrov said a Russian drone hit his bus on Route 14 in Kherson, and he told the BBC: "All the windows got smashed. I barely made it to the next stop, where there was a shelter."
The BBC also reported that Kherson’s municipal transport company said the attacks started last year and are getting worse, and it added that this year alone three workers have been killed, eight wounded, and 21 trolleybuses and eight buses damaged.
Nets, buses, and risks
Franceinfo described how residents in Kherson protect themselves from drones with fishing nets installed everywhere, saying the Kherson market is under immense nets where city residents shop protected by a giant mesh above their heads. Franceinfo reported that the neighborhood lies within reach of Russian drones, only 2.5 km from the front, and it said Ukrainians call the place the death zone. The BBC reported the same kind of lethal pattern for public transport, saying a bus was hit by a Russian drone on Route 14 and that Anatoly said he thought "sometimes they send a second drone immediately".
“The neighborhood lies within reach of Russian drones, only 2.5 km from the front.”
Franceinfo added that the nets do not banish fear and that the market was suddenly subjected to artillery fire, with it stating that two people were killed 500 meters from the market. In the BBC’s account of bus drivers’ work, municipal driver Maksym Dyak said, "We need to get people to their pharmacies and hospitals: children and the elderly, everyone who has stayed here, everyone who still lives here," as he explained why drivers keep going back despite the danger.