Ukraine's most dangerous city craves respite from killer drones as peace talks run on

By Max Hunder

KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) - The people of the frontline Ukrainian city of Kherson have more reason than most to want an end to the three-year-old fight with Russia. But a taste of occupation and relentless attacks since Russian forces were pushed back have made them wary of peace talks.

Serhiy, 64, lies in hospital with a bandaged stump where his foot used to be. He said he was walking to his job as a security guard when he was hit by a grenade dropped from a drone piloted by Russian forces just across the Dnipro river.

"There won't be peace if they are on that bank of the river," he said, declining to give his family name and asking that his face not be shown, because he feared retribution if Russian forces identify him.

"It will be constant terror, constant shelling. We need to get them out of there, there's no other way."

U.S. and Russian negotiators were meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday to try to seal a proposed 30-day pause on Kyiv and Moscow attacking each other's energy infrastructure, and move towards a broader ceasefire.

The city was once home to nearly 300,000 people, but the population has dwindled to 60,000. From March to November 2022, Russian occupying forces detained and tortured many people, residents say. The Russians, who reject allegations of abuse of civilians, were forced out by a Ukrainian counteroffensive. They now bombard relentlessly from the river's other bank.

DANGER OVERHEAD

With most of the war fought among villages and small provincial towns, Kherson is the biggest settlement within range of Russian artillery and battlefield drones — earning it the title of Ukraine's most dangerous city.

In his hospital room — staff asked that the location not be disclosed for fear of drawing fresh Russian attacks — Serhiy recalled spotting the drone that hit him.

"I jumped towards a tree, but it tore off my foot, tore off everything," Serhiy said.

The other bed in the room was occupied by Ihor, a bearded 30-year-old. He too was hit by a grenade dropped from a drone, he said, in his case as he walked along the street trying to find a phone signal because Russian attacks had damaged cellphone masts.

He also wanted the ceasefire to work. "I don't want other people to be brought to the hospital like this," he said, gesturing to his leg, whose broken bones were being held together by metal rods.

"We believe that Trump will end the war this year, as he promised, and we will have peace," said Ihor, who also declined to give his family name.

According to Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of the Kherson region, there are between 600 and 700 drone attacks in the city each week.

"They terrorize the population," he said of the Russian drone operators on the other bank. He said they routinely spot, through their onboard cameras, civilians going about their business, and then attack them. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians in the conflict.

Because of the threat of Russian drones, Maksym Dyak, a 38-year-old Kherson city bus driver, sits behind the wheel wearing a flak jacket and helmet.

Dyak said the vehicle he was driving had been hit by grenades dropped from drones ten times; he was at the wheel for five of those. A blown-out side window of the bus had been covered with a sheet of plywood, but he continues driving even when there are drones buzzing overhead.

"It's very scary, especially when you have little children on the bus," he said.

The territory of the hospital where the two wounded men were being treated has been hit 21 times since November 2022, chief doctor Viktor Korolenko told Reuters.

"You know, I really want all this to end ... our doctors are burning out psychologically under the bombardment," Korolenko said, adding that many of his staff had been forced to move into the hospital after their homes were destroyed, but that he planned to stay in Kherson.

At a street market in the city centre last week, residents, many of them elderly, shopped for vegetables and dried fish — despite warnings posted on social media of a drone flying in the area.

Tetiana Kudas, a 61-year-old cleaner shopping at the market, said it had become more dangerous recently in the city, which Russian President Vladimir Putin says should be handed to Russia under any peace agreement.

"They're bombing us even more now," she said, her voice choking with emotion as she explained how she would rather risk death in Kherson than move somewhere else where people would treat her like a stranger.

"I will stay on my land, and whatever will be will be," she said.

(Reporting by Max Hunder, additional reporting by Viktoria Lakezina, Valentyn Ogirenko and Leonardo Benassatto; editing by Philippa Fletcher)