WE'RE BEING HUNTED LIKE ANIMALS

In Kherson, Ukraine, Russian-operated drones are targeting, maiming and killing ordinary civilians in a terrifying phenomenon dubbed 'human safaris'. One resident, Catherine Kostryka, shares her chilling account

- By Richard Ashmore

THE MAN was walking home with meagre supplies in a rucksack from a grocery shop when he first noticed a dark, squat shape perched on a building ahead. Suddenly a sound like dozens of miniature handheld fans turning on at once made his heart sink. He could only watch helplessly as the deadly Russian drone took off it had been waiting for him.

Like some scene from a futuristic dystopian horror movie, the drone’s launch signalled to this Ukrainian civilian that a Russian pilot somewhere across the front line had decided it was his turn to take part in the life-and-death reality of a “human safari”.

Hunted like animals by remote aerial death deliverers, the civilians of Kherson on Ukraine’s eastern front line are facing this nightmare every single day.

As Donald Trump, Sir Keir Starmer and other world leaders talk about a peace with Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin war machine is still finding new ways to terrorise ordinary Ukrainians.

Catherine Kostryka has lived in Kherson, a city in one of the regions Putin wishes to claim in a peace deal, since the beginning of the invasion in 2022.

She has bravely agreed to speak to the Daily Express about what life is like being stalked by death from above and has given a chilling account of daily life.

"The Russian drone pilots are 100% deliberately targeting civilians, they are not even trying to hide it," she says.

"If you look through Russian sources, their own Telegram channels and videos, their own propaganda... They call what is happening here a 'safari'. These drone operators are trained on civilians, we can’t do anything to them. A few weeks ago, they targeted a one-year-old child. The other day they targeted women at the bus station."

She disagrees with the opinion of some people who say the drones are trained on finding undercover Ukrainian soldiers.