The highest number of FPV drone attacks on civilians was recorded in the Kherson region

The Kherson region remains the area where Russian forces most frequently attack civilians with FPV drones. In total, since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 16,000 criminal cases have been registered regarding attacks on the civilian population using short-range drones.

This was reported by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.

According to him, the highest number of such crimes has been recorded in the Kherson region, as well as in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy regions.

As an example of yet another war crime, the prosecutor general cited a morning attack in Kherson. According to him, a Russian FPV drone tracked down and attacked a 52-year-old vendor at a local market. The drone circled above the man for some time before striking him. The victim suffered blast trauma, a concussion, and shrapnel wounds. The prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal case regarding this incident under the article on war crimes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also responded to this crime. He stated that the Russian military is effectively conducting a “safari” on civilians in Kherson, deliberately hunting them down using FPV drones. According to the president, Russia does not hide such crimes; on the contrary, it flaunts them and takes pride in them. Zelenskyy emphasized that the world must respond to this terror, as it is impossible to stop such attacks without increasing pressure on Russia and providing real security guarantees.

According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, 187 such crimes were documented in 2022–2023. In 2024, that number rose to 2,685; in 2025, to 7,787; and since the beginning of 2026, 2,614 FPV drone attacks on civilians have already been recorded.

In total, nearly 7,000 people have been affected by FPV drone strikes, including 179 children. A total of 967 people were killed, including 10 children.

In addition, law enforcement officials have documented 43 instances in which Russian military forces employed a “double-strike” tactic, whereby a drone strikes again after the initial attack, targeting people who had arrived to assist the victims.

It is worth noting that the international journalism community and human rights activists were already speaking out more than a year ago about the Russian military’s systematic targeting of civilians in the Kherson region. In particular, American journalist Zarina Zabriskie, who documents Russian war crimes in Ukraine, has repeatedly drawn attention to the use of FPV drones for deliberate attacks on the region’s civilian population.

Андрій Колісніченко