‘Russians in Kherson train on civilians’: Deadly drones stalk south Ukraine

Residents and officials accuse Russians of ‘human safaris’ with fatal effects in a city they once occupied.

Kherson, Ukraine – In late November, Maria, a 22-year-old from Ponyativka in southern Ukraine, gave birth to a boy.

She named her second child Ivan, after his father who had been dreaming about a son since he joined the army in 2023.

Baby Ivan was the only child born that day in the district maternity hospital in Kherson, a city where more people die than are born and more decide to leave than stay.

According to the local administration, just 15 babies were born in December while 256 people died and 311 fled.

As Kherson dies out, its 83,000 residents – down from a population of more than 320,000 before the war – are focusing on how to survive relentless shelling by Russia and what locals have nicknamed “human safaris”.