Russian drone attacks are unnerving residents of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, as the threat moves closer to the regional capital. Volodymyr, a man from a village that he said had only eight people left when he last counted, fled his home last week and now stays in a shelter for displaced people in the city.
“We were in the cellar when they started bombing us with drones,” he said, rubbing his red, blistered hands together. “As you can see, I was completely burned.”
Villages south of the city face escalating strikes
Volodymyr fled Preobrazhenka, a village just over 40km (25 miles) from the shelter where he now sits. The villages south of Zaporizhzhia have been under escalating Russian attacks.
On November 2, nine Russian glide bombs struck the town of Komyshuvakha, killing at least 50 people in what was one of the deadliest attacks in Ukraine this year. Many of the victims had gathered at a local school to receive humanitarian aid. Several people are still missing and are feared dead under the rubble.
Residents say the constant threat of bombs and drones makes everyday life almost unbearable. Well-documented footage shows Russian First-Person-View (FPV) drones deliberately targeting vehicles and civilians on the streets. Ukrainians say drones have also stalked civilians in cities including Kherson, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Drones and missiles reach Zaporizhzhia city
Zaporizhzhia is now showing some of the same warning signs. The city administration is installing anti-drone netting over streets and civilian infrastructure in the Cosmos neighbourhood. Boarded-up windows and bombed-out buildings across the city show how hard it is to limit the threat once drones arrive.
Denys Knysh, a regional military administration official, said authorities are preparing to move the shelter where Volodymyr is staying to another neighbourhood “if the situation gets worse”. Many people in the shelter are elderly or have limited mobility, and some lack the documents needed to relocate.
On one recent day, Russian Banderol missiles, described as low-cost, jet-powered cruise missiles, struck a shopping mall and the main bridge into the city. An FPV drone also hit a city bus. Along the Pryberezhna Highway, petrol stations and businesses are covered in protective netting.
“It’s scary and dangerous, everything is flying around. Just today a drone flew over us,” said Nataliia, an employee at a petrol station.
Residents weigh whether to stay or leave again
Zaporizhzhia has sheltered thousands of internally displaced people since the start of the war, many of them fleeing Russian occupation in cities such as Mariupol and Melitopol. Those cities fell under Russian control early in the conflict. Now, some of the people who once fled here for safety face the prospect of leaving again.
Others want to stay near their former homes, holding on to hope that the war will end and they can return. Alina, who works in a flower shop beneath protective drone netting, said, “Of course I may have to leave, but I don’t want to.” She hears the buzz of Russian drones almost every day.
The city still shows signs of normal life. Lights hang over restaurant terraces and some streets remain busy. But the transition is rarely clear-cut, and residents have gradually adapted to each new threat:
- Streets covered in protective nets
- Drone jammers fitted on the roofs of city buses
- Bridges with gaping holes from attacks
- Children walking around carrying drone detectors
Knysh said authorities are ready to evacuate the city if and when that becomes necessary. He acknowledged the difficulty of knowing how many people remain.
“It’s very difficult to calculate [how many people are left in the city] because every day people leave Zaporizhzhia,” he said. “The demographic in Google doesn’t correspond to the reality.”
