Life Imitating Horror Movies: Russia Uses Drones to Hunt Ukrainian Civilians

The level of Russian disregard for human life, in this case Ukrainian lives in their homes, has reached a new level.

Russia’s rapists and cutthroats are using drones to hunt innocent, unarmed Ukrainian men, women and children like targets in a carnival attraction, according to the United Nations.

News reports, among them by Reuters, citing a new UN inquiry that was presented to the General Assembly on October 27, said Russian invaders have used drones to hunt and displace civilians from their homes near the front line in Ukraine.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found that the coordinated drone assaults, carried out over more than a year, amount to the crime against humanity of forcible population transfer.

In May, the commission determined that Russia’s months-long, short-range drone attacks targeting civilians along a 100-kilometer stretch on the right bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region constituted murder as a crime against humanity.

Five months on, it has extended the scope of those conclusions to a 300-km stretch of Ukrainian-held territory across the Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions.

It has now also concluded that the attacks were “part of a coordinated policy to drive out civilians from those territories, and amount to the crime against humanity of forcible transfer of population.”

“Russian authorities have systematically coordinated actions to drive out Ukrainian civilians from their place of residence by drone attacks, as well as deportations and transfers,” the report said.

Investigators said Russian troops intentionally targeted civilians and civilian structures across a 300-kilometer area spanning the Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, and Mykolaiv regions, forcing people to flee.

The report drew on 226 interviews with victims, witnesses, aid workers, and local officials, as well as verified videos showing civilians being “hunted” by drones.

UN investigators said the attacks also struck first responders, including ambulances and firefighters, despite clear humanitarian markings.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians and refuses to cooperate with the UN commission, which has previously accused Russia of war crimes such as the deportation of Ukrainian children.