By Olha Chepil | 2025-08-25

Russian drone operators are hunting Ukrainians in real time. First-person view (FPV) drones, once used mainly to disable tanks and armored vehicles at the front, are now targeting civilians in Kherson and other towns -- striking homes, cars, ambulances and even aid convoys.

"FPV drones are piloted in real time. Russian drone operators see their victims and attack deliberately," Alexander Kovalenko, a correspondent with InfoResist, told Kontur.

The shift has transformed a battlefield weapon into a terror device, forcing rescue workers and humanitarian groups to operate under constant threat of being watched, and hunted, from the sky.

Mass terror tool

Drone attacks are simple and deadly. Operators use first-person cameras to track targets in real time, circling for hours before striking.

FPV drones now menace civilians as well as military personnel, striking towns up to 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) from the front, according to Kovalenko.

"The main areas where FPV drones are used to attack civilians are along the combat line and in the near side of the rear. It's the areas of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka," he explained.

Kovalenko said Russian forces launch hundreds of drones to terrorize Ukrainian civilians on a daily basis.

"There are days when 500-600 FPV drones are used along the entire combat line, and there are days with 1300–1400. It all depends on the weather, availability of ammunition and other factors," he noted.

The situation remains particularly difficult in Kherson, where 250–270 FPV drone launches are recorded each day, leaving civilians with virtually no safe zones.

"A drone over my mom"

Kherson resident Alena Shcherbina told Kontur that her mother narrowly escaped an attack while watering flowers outside.

"A drone was circling over my mom. She hid under a tree, but the drone hovered over the roof and seemed to be waiting. After a few minutes, it dropped its payload. Mom miraculously managed to escape into a building entrance," said Shcherbina, who survived the Russian occupation and runs a Facebook group called Kherson as It Is.

She added that her mother has been targeted by drones several times, and such incidents are now routine in Kherson. Nowhere in the city is safe, as drones clearly target civilians, with military personnel not moving openly on the streets.

"They can clearly see that it's an elderly person or a child. But they still drop explosives," Shcherbina said.

Eyewitnesses said drones have dropped explosives into trash bins to start fires or landed on paths to target passersby. The attacks on children are especially horrific, according to Shcherbina.

"Recently a 16 year old boy was hit. Before that, an 11-year-old child in Bilozirka. Unfortunately, some of the children did not survive," she said.

Locals say FPV drones spread fear while also crippling infrastructure and deepening the humanitarian crisis.

Shcherbina said Russian forces block aid convoys and even target firefighters and ambulances, warning in Telegram groups: "If you come to [help] the wounded, you will be a legitimate target."

With rescue crews often unable to respond, civilians are learning to fight fires and give first aid themselves.

Volunteers, police as targets

FPV drones have spread far beyond Kherson, with attacks reported in the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions. Humanitarian convoys are often struck, sometimes in the middle of evacuations or aid deliveries.

Artem Shchus, police chief of the Volnovakha District in Donetsk, said his officers are targeted precisely when moving civilians. "They know we're evacuating civilians and not engaged in combat. But that doesn't stop them. They attack both police officers and buses with people."

The White Angels, a special National Police unit created to evacuate civilians from frontline and occupied areas in Donetsk, have also become a target.

"We drop people off at a designated point and hand them over to volunteers, and that is precisely the moment when a drone flies there. That's how three of my guys got wounded. It's good that the evacuees managed to drive off. It's like they're hunting us on purpose," said Shchus.

FPV drone attacks carry economic as well as psychological costs.

"Even if a drone drops its payload on an ambulance or fire engine, that's already economic damage. An FPV drone costs about $500, but a vehicle costs tens of thousands," said Kovalenko.

United Nations (UN) and regional officials say the strikes, which block aid and vital services, have worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine concluded that targeting civilians violates international law and that some strikes may constitute war crimes.

"This is revenge for the fact that people drove out the Russians, did not submit and did not want to be under occupation," said Shcherbina. "[The Russians] just want to destroy infrastructure and people. To just wipe them off the face of the earth."