\n
<\/p>\n
With increasing reports of these drones striking civilians in cars, on buses and on public streets, UN monitors have raised serious concerns about potential violations of international humanitarian law.<\/strong><\/p>\n According to HRMMU\u2019s\u00a0latest monthly update on the protection of civilians, at least 139 were killed and 738 injured in Ukraine last month. Attacks using short-range drones accounted for almost 30 per cent of these incidents.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cShort-range drones now pose one of the deadliest threats to civilians in frontline areas,\u201d said Danielle Bell,\u00a0Head of HRMMU.<\/p>\n The mission reports that 95 per cent of casualties from short-range drones in January occurred in territory controlled by Ukraine, with the remaining five per cent in areas occupied by Russia.<\/p>\n Many of the attacks involved first-person-view drones, that is, drones equipped with real time cameras, allowing operators to identify and track their targets with precision<\/strong>.<\/p>\n While such technology should, in theory, enable drone operators to distinguish between military and civilian targets, the UN\u2019s findings suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n \u201cOur data shows a clear and disturbing pattern of short-range drones being used in ways that put civilians at grave risk<\/strong>,\u201d Ms. Bell noted.<\/p>\n The new year brought\u00a0no respite in frontline regions but rather an escalation and even expansion of the fighting.<\/p>\n Casualties due to short-range drones were responsible for 70 per cent of civilian deaths in the Kherson region, which suffered the highest number of casualties.<\/p>\n One of the most shocking incidents took place on 6 January, when a drone targeted a public transit bus in Kherson City during rush hour.\u00a0<\/strong>The attack killed a man and a woman and injured eight others.<\/p>\n HRMMU also recorded an increase in drone-related casualties in other frontline regions, including Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.<\/p>\n Survivors have described the moments leading up to these attacks with harrowing detail.<\/p>\n A civilian from Mykolaiv recounted how a small drone circled above his head before diving directly at him while he was working in his home\u2019s garden.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI realised that I did not have time to hide. I dropped to the ground and covered my head with my hands,\u201d he told HRMMU.<\/p>\n \u201cThe blast wave tore off all my clothes. I somehow instinctively tried to protect my eyes. This saved my eyesight, because after the drone explosion, the backs of my palms were covered with small metal fragments,\u00a0<\/strong>which surgeons later removed.\u00a0<\/strong>My wedding ring was so pressed into my finger that they had to saw it off to remove it from my finger,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\nTerror in the skies<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Deadly incidents on the frontline<\/strong><\/h2>\n
First-hand account of strikes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
A disturbing trend<\/strong><\/h2>\n