‘Only fools are not afraid’: Ukrainians adapt to life under constant Russian drone attacks

(CNN) — 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.

In recent months, drone sightings in Nikopol have increased from two or three per day to about three every hour, day and night, Varytsev says.

The continual drone threat has forced civilians here to change their everyday behaviors to avoid becoming victims of what they call Russia’s “human safari.” They try not to stand in outdoor spaces like bus stops; schools and kindergartens have been closed; and civilian services like the Ukrainian national post office and city buses are also routinely suspended.

“People are afraid to walk in the street, but they’re adapting to the new reality,” Varytsev said. “We keep our heads up all the time, we no longer look down at our feet.”

Before the full-scale invasion, Nikopol had around 100,000 people and was mostly known for the strawberries it grows for the Ukrainian market. Today, local officials estimate that half of the population has left.

“The city is emptying before our eyes. The situation is very dangerous, and there are more and more attacks every day,” said Oleksii Kirillov, who has worked in freight transportation in Nikopol for more than two decades. Since the war began, his focus has been more on facilitating evacuations than on his transportation business, he said.

Over the past four years, he has learned to distinguish between combat drones and the slower-moving reconnaissance drones. And although fear has dulled, it has never gone away. “Only fools are not afraid.”

Anti-drone innovations

Nikopol is increasingly being covered with overhead fishing nets that can trap FPV drones – a new Ukrainian reality in almost all frontline cities, from Kherson to Kramatorsk. Locals said they’re working to expand the netting that covers roads to their sidewalks as well, to make it safer to walk around.

The drone threat has also driven other innovations, like notifying civilians of incoming drones via a city-wide warning app. Some companies and emergency workers have also been equipped with drone detector devices called “Chuykas.”

Experts say the relatively simple, handheld detection devices, which beep when a threat is incoming, can be effective for tracking drones that operate on analog radio frequencies, but they are unable to identify drones that fly on pre-set paths, use fiber-optic cables or have digital signals.

“It’s better than nothing, but it’s not a silver bullet,” said Carmine Clemente, a professor in radar systems at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. “It can give you probably a couple of minutes, at least, to get off the bus and try to get sufficiently far away to hide.”

The devices – made by Ukrainian company BlueBird Tech – are being marketed to the civilian sector even more than the military, according to Kateryna Bondar, a senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The devices have been adopted throughout frontline areas by bus companies, drivers, emergency volunteers and medics, as well as military personnel, she said.

“Every civilian can become a target because unfortunately Russians use those regions to train drone pilots, or just to create psychological campaigns when they hunt people,” said Bondar, an expert in defense innovations and a former adviser to the government of Ukraine.

Mykola Koshelev, who owns a transportation company in Nikopol, said the detection devices are expensive – they cost around $500 each – and difficult for drivers to operate on their own. So, his company has turned instead to an app, Zello, run by a private company, which notifies locals of Russian drones flying nearby.

“They (the drones) are there every day, especially in the mornings between 7 and 9 a.m. when they fly in swarms,” he said. “If they’re very close, the drivers stop the bus, and passengers get off and move away.” In parts of the city that have no internet connection, bus drivers are now using walkie-talkies to communicate about where drones are flying.

“We have no other way of keeping people safe except by being careful,” said Koshelev, adding that drivers are often fearful of coming to work as public transportation is increasingly targeted. “I’ve been in this business for as long as I can remember, and I could never have imagined this. Passenger numbers have fallen overall, but people trust the drivers more and have become friendlier.”

The local radio station, RadioNikopol, has added a function to its app allowing anyone who spots a drone to quickly report it to the station. The announcer breaks into the music whenever there is information to relay about the location of a drone threat. One song was interrupted three times while CNN was listening.

‘It’s as if they’re hunting us down’

Meanwhile, on train journeys throughout the country, it’s now commonplace for people to be forced to evacuate if drones are detected nearby. Civilians have been taught to fan out in different directions from the halted train, as authorities try to reduce the likelihood of mass-casualty events.

There have been more than 5,000 attacks carried out against Ukrainian Railways since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, according to Ukrainian authorities.

“The situation on the railways has taken a drastic turn for the worse over the past year,” locomotive driver Igor Zachepilov told CNN. “It’s as if they’re hunting us down. And not just freight trains, but passenger trains too.”

Zachepilov said protocols are constantly adapting, and his work has become more difficult amid repeated power cuts to the overhead line system and frequent evacuations. Often, civilians are forced to flee into open fields – considered safer than staying on the highly targeted trains – sometimes waiting for hours with nowhere to hide.

“There was one occasion when we carried out an evacuation. We were stationary at the station for quite a long time – about two hours,” Zachepilov recounted, saying that part of his job is to try to reassure passengers even as he faces his own fears. “We could hear explosions in the distance. Drones were buzzing overhead, flying above us; they were being shot down. It was a bit scary – you don’t know where to hide.”

As drone warfare becomes the new normal, analysts say all these adaptations and lessons from cities like Nikopol could inform the future of Western defense. Ukraine’s military and civil society have become the experts among Western allies, while Russia and Iran have developed their own capabilities.

Clemente, the radar systems professor, noted that Ukrainian industry has become extremely agile to meet evolving threats. “You might need to have new solutions in about six months from when a new threat arrives,” he said. “And the sooner the better.”

Back in Nikopol, freight business owner Kirillov said his family continues to adapt but remains resilient.

“We used to have a big group of friends. Today, only a few of us are left. My kids don’t play outside for more than two hours a day,” he said.

But he is not planning to go anywhere at this stage. “Maybe we’ll organize a fundraiser and buy a drone detector so we can react quickly to the threat. It’s our home. We won’t leave.”

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