Just two days before the attack that killed her father, Nataliia had pleaded with her parents to close the store. Petro loved his country, she recalls, and he loved Kherson. "He could have left [the country] with mom and gone abroad, his age allowed him to do so," she said.

Yet, he told her, "'This is mine; I can't leave it.'"

Two weeks after the fatal attack, Nataliia went to retrieve Petro's minivan, which still sat near the roundabout. She asked for help from volunteers working in the city; few were willing to take this risk.

Rain began pouring down as they moved the vehicle, its windshield still stained with her father's blood.

"It felt like a sign from my dad," Nataliia said, "protecting us from the drones."

A Warning for the Future

The stories of Petro, Tetiana, Serhii, Viktoria, Olha, Volodymyr, Valeriy, Anastasia, and other residents of Kherson depict a unique campaign of terror. Additionally, Russia's assault on Kherson since mid-2024 represents a seismic shift in the way that relatively inexpensive, commercially available drones, adapted to deliver explosive weapons, can be used in large numbers to target, hunt, kill, and injure civilians in large urban centers - making life so unbearable that those who are able feel that they must flee.

The implications of this kind of abusive military campaign, that can ruthlessly and accurately target civilians and civilian property, are far-reaching and global. To minimize harm to civilians and to help prevent these tactics from being repeated by abusive warring parties in other conflict zones around the world, commercial drone companies, states, and international bodies should work together to identify how to improve protection for civilians against the unlawful use of drones in warfare, including through prosecutions for use that amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Read our full report here.