Russia, according to a Reuters report this week, has been conducting a campaign of terror aimed at Zaporizhzhia, a city in Southeastern Ukraine.
Zaporizhzhia has been hit by Russia many times, going back to the original invasion in 2022, but Russia has stepped up the attacks lately, including its recent bombing of the processing center for a seafood business in that city.
Australia is sending 49 of its retired M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, a move that bolsters Kyiv’s armored firepower but raises significant questions about survivability on the modern battlefield. While the donation is a welcome gesture, US officials have reportedly expressed private frustration, warning that Ukraine struggles to sustain the complex tanks and highlighting their vulnerability to cheap, top-attack FPV drones. The war in Ukraine has become a “drone war,” where even advanced main battle tanks are at constant risk. The effectiveness of these donated Abrams will ultimately depend on Ukraine’s ability to counter this pervasive threat.
“Even half a year ago it was still scary, of course, and there were strikes. But it wasn’t like this,” Kateryna Lahuta, the owner of that seafood business, told Reuters. “Now it’s just a ‘safari’.”
Reuters said that their reporters visiting Lahuta’s business had to “seek cover” when they heard the buzzing of a first-person-view (FPV) drone nearby.
It’s part of what Ukrainians call “safari” strikes, in which drones hunt down a specific person or vehicle, almost always a civilian with no military target value.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has described the safari strikes as “a barbaric war crime” and a “deliberate and systemic Russian strategy.”
Governor Ivan Fedorov told Reuters that the FPV drones have been attacking “civilians, vehicles and public transport,” and that “the enemy is making it a priority to create maximum pressure on the civilian population.”
Lancet Drone from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
He added that while only about 5 percent of Russian FPV drones get through Ukraine’s defenses, there can be as many as ten a day that get through.
One high-profile example was this week’s attack on a street vendor in the Kherson region, near the war’s front line, in which a drone could be seen appearing to chase him, before the drone ultimately exploded; the vendor was injured but survived. The video of that attack went viral worldwide and was denounced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The BBC described the man in that video as a 52-year-old street vegetable vendor named Yuriy.
“The world must see this,” Zelensky said in a social media post in which he shared the video. “It must see every piece of evidence that Russia has gone mad, and every fact that Russian soldiers are enjoying killings and tormenting people.”
A separate report this week by Modern Diplomacy stated that Russia had “sharply intensified” its aerial assaults on Zaporizhzhia, using glide bombs as well as first-person view drones.
“The intensifying attacks on Zaporizhzhia illustrate how Russia’s military strategy is increasingly shifting from territorial advances to psychological and economic warfare,” Modern Diplomacy said in its analysis of the rise in attacks.
“As long as the ground front remains largely static, aerial intimidation is likely to remain a central component of Russia’s campaign against Ukraine.”
Striking a Children’s Hospital
Earlier this week, Ukrinform reported, Russian forces struck the Zaporizhzhia Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital. Although no one was hurt, the hospital’s facade and windows were damaged.
Fedorov, the regional governor, posted photographs of the strike to his Telegram channel. The weapon used was reportedly a Russian Molniya drone.
“Fortunately, when the air raid alert was announced, all the children and medical staff were in the shelter. There were no casualties.”
As noted by Kyiv Post, the lives were saved at the hospital in large part due to the experience Ukrainian hospital personnel have, after years of war, in moving patients into shelters once air raid sirens are sounded.
The publication added that Zaporizhzhia has seen strikes on medical facilities before, including a Russian attack in 2024 that struck the regional oncology center, leading to injuries to medical staff.
About Zaporizhzhia
Zaporizhzhia, which is part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the region that has mostly been occupied by Russian forces since 2022, when it was annexed, although Zaporizhzhia, the city, remains outside the zone that’s under Russian control.
That territory includes the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which lost its external power supply on August 4 for the second time in a week.
Earlier this week, Ukrinform reported, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces struck a set of Russian fuel tankers in the town of Prymorsk in the occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia, with commander Robert “Magyar” Brovdi posting video of the strike on Facebook.
“Fuel is hard for Crimea to get — only one out of three…,” the commander shared along with the video.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
