How a quick-thinking Ukrainian boy saved his family from a Russian drone

Small commercially available drones equipped with cameras and explosives are increasingly used to track, chase, and attack civilians in Ukraine. The tactic has spread from the southern city of Kherson to border areas, where farming villages and towns are hit. Civilians report drones striking tractors in fields, exploding cars near shops, and detonating on streets. In one case, a child spotted a drone approaching a home and recognized it was targeting nearby buildings where younger siblings played. The drone climbed as if focusing on the children, prompting the family to take action that helped avoid casualties. The UN labels the tactic a war crime, and its use has blurred the distinction between combatants and civilians.

"That sound often means death in Ukraine, and not just for soldiers on the front lines. Increasingly, civilians are tracked, chased and attacked by small, commercially available drones equipped with cameras, rigged with explosives and steered by fingers on joysticks a dozen kilometres away."

"Ukrainians, darkly, have dubbed this Xbox-inflected hunting of civilians as Russia's "human safari" - a terror campaign that started in the once-occupied southern city of Kherson. In recent months, it has evolved with new technology and spread to border areas around the country."

"Anatolii knew it had recently reached the small farming village where he and his family live in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, 10km from the Russian border. Tractors, like the one his father frequently drove, had been hit in the fields. In March, a drone blew up a car next to a shop. Another had exploded on Anatolii's street just the day before."

"As he clung to the tree trunk, the black quadcopter buzzed past, flying just off the ground and bearing down on a cluster of buildings where three of his younger siblings were playing with other kids in their yard. He watched as unseen eyes seemed to zero in on the structures and the drone began to climb, apparently rearing to strike. "It saw the children and started gaining altitude," Anatolii said. "That's when I realised something was about to happen.""

Read at Irish Independent