- In 2024, Russian drone strikes killed dozens of civilians and injured hundreds more in the city of Kherson, in apparently deliberate or reckless attacks that constitute war crimes.
- The attacks have the apparent purpose of instilling terror in the civilian population in Kherson, part of a widespread attack against that population.
- These attacks underscore the urgency of identifying effective ways to enforce respect for international humanitarian law, including through prosecutions of serious crimes in Ukraine.
(Kyiv, June 3, 2025) – Russian forces have repeatedly used drones to attack civilians and civilian objects in Kherson city in southern Ukraine, serious violations of the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 93-page report, “Hunted From Above: Russia’s Use of Drones to Attack Civilians in Kherson, Ukraine” and an accompanying web feature, document how Russian forces appear to be deliberately or recklessly carrying out drone strikes against civilians and civilian objects with these mostly inexpensive commercially available drones. The attacks spread terror among the civilian population and cause them to fear leaving their homes, and have caused the depopulation of the two areas being targeted in Kherson.
“Russian drone operators are able to track their targets, with high-resolution video feeds, leaving little doubt that the intent is to kill, maim, and terrify civilians,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “They exemplify why the international community needs to support all avenues of accountability for victims of Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 36 survivors of and witnesses to Russian drone attacks in Kherson and analyzed 83 videos of drone attacks uploaded, often with captions, to Russian military-affiliated Telegram channels as well as videos and photographs taken by witnesses and shared with researchers. Through these videos, Human Rights Watch confirmed that Russian forces used commercially available quadcopter drones manufactured by two China-based commercial drone companies, DJI and Autel, and one model made by a Russian entity, Sudoplatov, which describes itself as a volunteer organization.
Both DJI and Autel responded to letters from Human Rights Watch, acknowledging reports that their drones were being used by Russian forces for combat purposes. They stressed that such use was incompatible with company policies, and provided information on steps they take to avoid their drones potentially being used for such purposes. Sudoplatov and the Russian government have not responded.
Human Rights Watch documented at least 45 deliberate drone attacks by Russian forces from June to December 2024 on civilians and civilian objects, including on healthcare and other essential goods and services in the neighborhoods of Antonivka and Dniprovskyi of Kherson. Between May and December, drone attacks in Kherson resulted in almost 500 civilian injuries and 30 fatalities according to the Kherson City Council Executive Committee. The attacks continue.
Drone attacks accounted for 70 percent of civilian casualties recorded in Kherson in January 2025 by the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Russian forces have used drones to attack civilians while they were out walking, cycling, driving, taking public transport to and from work, and in their homes. Some residents said they tried to hide or evade a drone that followed them for several minutes.
Russian-operated drones have targeted healthcare facilities and ambulances and their personnel, including rescue workers responding to drone attacks on civilians. Ambulance personnel said their teams could no longer respond to calls in some areas for fear of drone attacks. Instead, police teams in armored vehicles had to transport those injured to medical facilities.
Russian forces also carried out drone attacks on grocery stores and vehicles delivering produce to stores, forcing nearly all stores in the affected areas to close. Drone attacks on gas, water, and electrical infrastructure – and on municipal workers attempting to repair the damage – have further limited residents’ access to basic services.
Russian forces have armed quadcopter drones with internationally-prohibited antipersonnel landmines that they have scattered in Kherson neighborhoods. The PFM antipersonnel mines are contaminating areas and injuring civilians. These attacks have hampered efforts to clear landmines and other explosive war remnants.
The overwhelming impact of this campaign has been to force people to leave the area. Between May and December 2024, Antonivka’s population decreased by close to half, according to the Kherson City Council Executive Committee.
Those who remain – mostly older people and those unable to evacuate easily – are afraid to leave their homes. They say that when they do, they are constantly listening for the buzzing sound of drones overhead, scanning the area around them for potential hiding spots under trees, and looking out for landmines that may have been dropped during drone attacks.
These attacks on civilians are serious violations of the laws of war that, when committed with criminal intent, constitute war crimes. Human Rights Watch also found that these attacks on civilians in Kherson using armed quadcopter drones constitute apparent crimes against humanity. The attacks resulted in the intentional killing or infliction of serious bodily or mental or physical health injuries, conducted as part of a widespread attack on the civilian population in Kherson, and appear to have been in furtherance of a Russian policy behind that attack. Examined in their totality and over time, the pattern of attacks seems to be part of an apparent Russian strategy whose primary purpose has been to spread terror among the civilian population.
The ability of Russian forces to arm relatively inexpensive and commercially available drones to carry out illegal attacks underscores the urgency of identifying effective ways to enforce respect for international humanitarian law, including through prosecutions of war crimes, Human Rights Watch said. Governments should also work with commercial drone companies to develop and implement safeguards to prevent or minimize drones being used for unlawful combat purposes.
“The attacks in Kherson are a staggering case study in what life is like when civilians are being hunted from above with blood-chilling precision,” Wille said. “It is alarming that these unlawful attacks can be achieved by arming relatively cheap and commercially available drones: Kherson should serve as a harbinger of what life for civilians could become in conflict areas around the globe if respect for international humanitarian law is not enforced.”
Selected Episodes
On September 28, Anastasia Pavlenko, 23, was cycling along the main road between Antonivka and Kherson. “Suddenly,” she said, “I saw a drone take off from a roof and start to chase me.” The drone followed Pavlenko for nearly 300 meters. She said she was still on her bicycle and less than 100 meters from the Antonivka bridge when “the drone dropped a grenade. I was injured in my neck, left leg, and under the rib.” In shock, Pavlenko continued toward the underpass. “I was still biking, covered in blood and with flat tires.”
The next day, a video showing the attack on Pavlenko was uploaded to a Russian military-affiliated telegram channel. It is captioned:
Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers ride bicycles. This character was accurately eliminated … [Medical] Evacuation is not allowed to approach.
When Human Rights Watch spoke to Pavlenko in late November, she had moved to a different city, and said she still had a metal fragment in her neck that surgeons could not remove due to its position. Pavlenko spent seven days in the hospital. She has not been back to Kherson since. “If not for the drones, I would still live there,” she said.
Tetiana Kravchuk, a lawyer from Antonivka, said she left home on foot on October 30, 2024, at 6:30 a.m., to feed her neighbor’s dog. Kravchuk checked the street for landmines. As she was returning to her house, she heard a drone. Kravchuk said:
It was behind me, chasing me. I tried to hide between the trees. I heard the drone circling the tree, coming closer and closer. The drone was four meters above me. Then there was an explosion.
Kravchuk said, “I called my son and told him that a drone had attacked me, and my leg was injured.” Her son took her to the hospital, where she underwent surgery and spent six days. When Human Rights Watch interviewed Kravchuk in late November, she was still in treatment, after which she was to begin six months of rehabilitation.
On October 28, at 8 p.m., Volodymyr Pavlyuk, 64, an ambulance driver, along with Dr. Serhiy Kucherenko, 64, and a medical assistant, Viktoria Zhogha, 40, responded to a call in Antonivka, where two people had leg injuries from a drone-dropped munition.
After the team’s arrival, while they were standing near the ambulance, Zhogha heard a drone and shouted, “Drone! Drone!” She said: “I started calling the doctor and tried to hide, but I didn’t know where. It was too dark. We were panicking. At the last second, I tried to enter the ambulance.” The explosion occurred at that moment.
Pavlyuk found both colleagues injured. “There was a puddle of blood around Serhiy [Dr. Kucherenko] and he was silent,” he said. Vika [Zhogha] had wounds to her leg.” Pavlyuk suffered a concussion and hearing damage. The blast also damaged the ambulance.
Pavlyuk loaded both colleagues and one injured civilian into the ambulance, placing the second civilian in the front seat. He drove to a safer location under a tree to wait for another ambulance. The doctor was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Zhogha suffered fragmentation injuries to both legs, her right hip, and stomach.
Human Rights Watch verified a drone video posted to a Russian military-affiliated Telegram channel that shows the attack. The first clip appears to show the attack that injured the two people Pavlyuk and his team were responding to. The clip starts with a drone flying and then hovering above a tree near some houses. In the second clip, a drone is flying to the same location and hovers over the ambulance. A munition is visible, falling toward the group of people for a few frames before an explosion occurs near the front right side of the vehicle.
Serhii Dolhov, 50, lives in Dniprovske, 8 kilometers west of Kherson. On November 3, he was walking near his apartment building when he stepped on a PFM antipersonnel mine that exploded. His left foot was almost completely severed by the blast and his right leg was injured by plastic fragments. Dolhov said, “I walked in this area a lot, so the mine must have appeared there maybe two or three days earlier. I am always looking up for drones, I wasn’t looking down for mines.”
