Russia: Targeting civilians in Ukraine with drones – DW – 08/27/2024
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For months, Russian drones have terrorized civilians near Ukraine's frontline. DW Investigations reveals that some of these attacks could constitute war crimes, with efforts underway to identify potential perpetrators.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2280418

Since at least the fall of 2023, Russian drones have ravaged Beryslav, a small city near Kherson in southern Ukraine, right by the Dnipro River. […] Between last September and July 2024, they [Ukrainian authorities] counted over a hundred strikes that left nearly 130 reported civilians injured and 16 dead in Beryslav and its surrounding villages and settlements.

In-depth open-source investigation [and] interviews with Ukrainian officials, war analysts, drone experts, NGOs on the ground, and survivors of drone attacks. They all point to one thing: Russian military may have used drones indiscriminately and systematically against civilians.

[…]

Such drones are "highly precise weapons,” says Wayne Jordash, adding that the "room for accident and incidental damage” is limited. British lawyer Jordash, who carries the honorary title of King’s Counsel, is president of the Global Rights Compliance, a non-profit legal practice specialized in international humanitarian law. He has been advising prosecutors in Ukraine since early on in this war.

[…]

Real-life ‘computer game’

According to witnesses, drones circle over [the city of] Beryslav from sunrise to sunset. Lyubov Kindrat, who relocated to a safer area in Ukraine with her husband after the attack, says it felt like Russian troops were playing a computer game, with “living targets.”

[…]

According to experts, FPV drones can fly up to 15 km (roughly 10 miles) before running out of battery or losing signal …