Nikopol, in southern Ukraine, rarely makes the headlines – overshadowed by the threats to the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant directly across the river. But this city on the front line of Russia’s full-scale invasion has been attacked almost every day since the war began, local authorities say.
Its proximity to Russian military positions only two miles away on the other bank of the Dnipro River means that civilians face a heightened risk of attacks by short-range Russian drones.
“We’ve actually grown somewhat accustomed to the danger, though the feeling of fear never really goes away,” said Oleksandr Varytsev, a poet who also runs a local charity that provides hot meals for elderly and disabled people. “It’s very scary – and if it’s scary for me, you can imagine how older men and women feel when they come to our volunteer center.”
Horrifying video posted by authorities in June showed a small Russian drone target an elderly woman in a wheelchair – an attack that killed three people, including the 87-year-old woman and her son. In April, four more people were killed in a drone attack on a city bus.
Those are just two examples of Russian FPV (first-person view) drones attacking civilians rather than military assets – a phenomenon that’s also playing out in the frontline cities of Kherson and Kramatorsk. Russia has repeatedly claimed it is targeting Ukrainian Armed Forces threats in Nikopol, despite evidence to the contrary.
