Olga Chernyshova's family runs a grocery store in the port city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.
It is located close to the Dnieper River, opposite the front line of the total war that has turned life in Ukraine upside down for almost three years.
Since Russia launched its invasion, the family store has been flooded after a dam collapsed and damaged by incendiary fire. Getting to the store safely becomes increasingly difficult in the face of constant war threats – including enemy drones.
Last month, Chernyshova was unloading her vehicle outside her home when she heard the sound of an approaching Russian drone that had dropped an explosive device. and hit her car.
Chernyshova and others living in Kherson well understand the threat posed by drones – already occupied by Russian forces that are still nearby.
“Kherson is very close to the Russians, so they can reach there with drones,” said Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian MP from Odessa, also in southern Ukraine.
Drones have proven critical for outnumbered and manned Ukraine as it tries to fend off a Russian invasion. Ukraine has used a wide range of drones to attack targets – some near the front lines, others far inside Russian territory.
But it also had to defend against drones sent by Russia, which have proven deadly 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 shared the news on his Telegram account that a 69-year-old woman had died after a drone attack on a bus in Antonivka and ul. A 75-year-old woman and two men in their 50s were also killed by drones in other parts of Kherson Oblast.
Tymofiy Mylovanov, an economist and former Ukrainian government minister, says civilians in these areas deal with drone threats in different ways.
“They hide, stay away from areas where drones have been spotted, or leave them altogether,” Mylovanov said.
For Chernyshova, her everyday life involves paying close attention to the sky above her head.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he will work with both Ukraine and Russia to end the war if elected as he stood next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before their meeting in New York. Zelensky said he wanted to discuss his “victory plan” for Ukraine with Trump.
She told CBC News through a translator that she and her family listen for warning signals of approaching drones, then rush to their destination – including once they arrive at the store.
She also said she sometimes hides from drones under cover under trees when meeting others outside.
Chernyshova recommended that local authorities do more to warn people about these dangers – through posters and online – and provide information about the best ways to stay safe in given circumstances.
Much of the region remains occupied
Chernyshova stated that “although it is really hard in Kherson, it is even harder in the occupied areas.”
Russian forces still control much of the wider region atop Crimea in southern Ukraine.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports that Russian forces occupy approximately 19,550 square kilometers – or about 73 percent – of the Kherson region.
Kateryna Stepanenko, deputy leader of the advisory team's Russia advisory panel, says the city and other nearby towns, including Beryslav, are on part of the front line that Russia has defense concerns about.
“The Russian side expresses great concerns… about the possibility of Ukrainians getting through this area,” she said.
Russian forces are close enough to Ukrainian settlements to be able to fly small first-person view (FPV) drones, which pose a threat to many civilians.
It is not easy for Ukraine to knock these smaller drones out of the air.
Ukraine has limited resources to combat drones, and FPVs pose a problem that cannot be solved by large-scale air defense systems.
Stepanenko said the likely solution is for Ukraine to continue developing new tools and technologies to shoot down these drones.
Ukrainian MP Goncharenko points out that the inhabitants of Kherson are threatened “not only by drones.”
Before the increase in drone attacks, Kherson “was shelled by artillery, now it's ballistic or aerial bombs,” he said, noting that “Mariupol was bombarded with such bombs, now Kharkov and Zaporozhye are also bombed.”
The United Nations Observer Mission in Ukraine reported that more than 11,700 civilians were killed in the country from the beginning of the Russian invasion to the end of August. During the same period, more than 24,600 other civilians were injured.
Despite the threats that Kherson residents face, Chernyshova stated that non-Ukrainians should not pity the people living there.
She said she wants others to understand that they are fighting for freedom simply by remaining in the region and that they are proud of that.
