Olga Chernyshova's family runs a grocery store in the southern Ukrainian port city of Kherson.
It is located near the Dnipro River, opposite the front line of the total war that shook life in Ukraine for almost three years.
Since Russia began its invasion, the family's store has been flooded after a dam broke and damaged by firebombing. It has become increasingly difficult to get to the store safely amid the ongoing dangers of wartime – including hostile drones.
Last month, Chernyshova was unloading her vehicle outside her home when she heard the sound of an approaching Russian drone that released an explosive. and hit her car.
The drone threat is well understood by Chernyshova and others living in Kherson – previously occupied by Russian forces, which are still nearby.
“Kherson is very close to the Russians, so they can get there with drones,” said Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker who was born in Odesa, also in southern Ukraine.
Drones have been instrumental in unarmed and manned Ukraine as it tries to repel the Russian invasion. Ukraine has used a wide variety of drones to attack targets – some near the front lines, others deep inside Russian territory.
But it also had to defend itself against drones sent by Russia, which proved lethal to both soldiers and civilians – including in Kherson, where Chernyshova lives and works, but also in other parts of the region.
In the first week of October, Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin's Telegram account shared news of a 69-year-old woman who died after a drone attack on a bus in Antonivka and a 75-year-old woman and two men in 50-year-olds also killed by drones in other parts of the Kherson region.
Tymofiy Mylovanov, an economist and former Ukrainian government minister, says civilians in these areas are dealing with drone threats in different ways.
“They hide, stay away from areas where the drones were noticed, or leave,” Mylovanov said.
For Chernyshova, her daily routine involves paying close attention to the sky.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he would work with Ukraine and Russia to end the war if elected, alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before their meeting in New York. Zelenskyy said he wanted to discuss his “victory plan” for Ukraine with Trump.
She told CBC News through a translator that she and her family hear the warning signals of approaching drones and then hurriedly drive to their destination — including when arriving at the store.
She also said she sometimes hides from drones under tree cover when she meets other people outside.
Chernyshova called for local authorities to do more to warn people about these risks – through posters and online – and provide information on the best ways to stay safe given the circumstances.
Much of the region remains occupied
Chernyshova said that “although things are really difficult in Kherson, they are even more difficult in the occupied areas.”
Russian forces still control much of the region at the top of Crimea in southern Ukraine.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says Russian forces occupy about 19,550 square kilometers – or about 73% – of the Kherson region.
Kateryna Stepanenko, deputy leader of the think tank's Russian team, says the city and other nearby towns, including Beryslav, lie along a part of the front line about which Russia has defensive concerns.
“There is a lot of fear on the Russian side… regarding the possibility of Ukrainians crossing that area,” she said.
Russian forces are close enough to these Ukrainian settlements to fly the small first-person view (FPV) drones that are the source of danger to many civilians.
These smaller drones are not easy for Ukraine to eliminate.
Ukraine has few resources to deal with drones, and FPVs are a problem that cannot be solved with large-scale air defense systems.
Stepanenko said the likely solution is for Ukraine to continue to develop new tools and technologies to shoot down these drones.
Goncharenko, the Ukrainian lawmaker, stresses that “it’s not just drones” that threaten people living in Kherson.
Before the increase in drone strikes, Kherson “was bombed with artillery, now it's ballistic or aerial bombs,” he said, noting that “Mariupol was bombed with these bombs, and Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia are now being bombed” as well.
The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that more than 11,700 civilians have died in the country since the start of the Russian invasion and the end of August. More than 24,600 other civilians were injured in the same period.
Despite the threats Kherson residents face, Chernyshova said people outside Ukraine should not feel sorry for people living there.
She said she wanted others to understand that they are fighting for their freedom just by staying in the region and that they are proud of it.
