Rescue workers discovered a body on 10 June under the debris of a Kharkiv enterprise destroyed in Russia’s deadly overnight attack on 7 June. The search for five more missing workers continues.

One body recovered, five more feared buried

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov announced the discovery via Telegram on 10 June.

“During rescue work at the enterprise shelled on 7 June, a body was found. The process of its recovery is ongoing,” Terekhov wrote.

He added that rescue operations are being conducted around the clock, and according to available data, up to five individuals may still be trapped under the rubble.

Kharkiv endures most extensive attack since full-scale invasion began. Three civilians killed, dozens injured

Enterprise struck in powerful overnight air assault days ago

The enterprise, located in Kharkiv’s Kyivskyi District, was hit during what Terekhov described as the “most powerful attack” on the city since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The assault began at approximately 03:00 a.m. on 7 June and included over 40 explosions. Russian forces used more than 50 Shahed explosive drones, four guided bombs (KABs), and one missile, according to Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office head Spartak Borysenko.

A large fire erupted at the site, and initial reports said six workers might be blocked under the rubble. Five of them—three women and two men—were confirmed injured.

Injured teen dies week after Russian attack on Sumy

Earlier toll from the 7 June attack

The overnight Russian assault on Kharkiv killed three civilians and injured 21 others, including a one-and-a-half-month-old infant and a 14-year-old girl. Later that evening, Russian forces attacked again with guided bombs, one of which hit the children’s railway, killing two and injuring over 40 people.

Russian missile killed young couple planning marriage. They lived on 8th floor —their bodies found in basement after collapse

Zarina Zabrisky, Euromaidan Press war correspondent, reflects on daily life under drone fire in Kherson, as the United Nations confirms these attacks were deliberate crimes against humanity.

Russian armed forces have committed murder of civilians as crimes against humanity using drones, concludes the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine in a new report just out on 28 May 2025.

This confirms what the people of Kherson knew for months: Russia is targeting civilians from across the river with drones. They are not aiming at military sites. They are hunting people.

Russia’s “human safari” reaches all-time high

By May 2025, the Russian military’s “human safari” is at an all-time high in Kherson, the regional center in the south of Ukraine. Khersonians, keen on defining the horrors befalling them, gave this macabre name to a relatively new Russian tactic: commercially made, small drones hunt and kill civilians.

Mass drone attacks started in Kherson in winter-spring 2024, and intensified by the end of July.

Taking videos and photographs of drone attacks used to be virtually impossible, as such footage might cost a reporter their life or limb. By spring 2025, however, not only is “human safari” a term recognized worldwide, but the attacks are so frequent that the evidence is overwhelming.

These days, aim a camera at the sky—and sooner or later, a drone will show up.

100 drones a day attack Kherson civilians

For comparison, mines and explosives wounded 215 and killed 22 during the same period in the Kherson Oblast.

Explore further

Russian drones hunt civilians, terrorize Kherson with “human safari”

UN confirms deliberate war crimes

The UN has now concluded that attacks like this were part of a policy designed to spread terror and confirmed that the practice is recognized as a war crime by international law, as the Russian pilots on the other side of the Dnipro River can see the target and intentionally kill civilians.

“The attacks followed a regular pattern and the same modus operandi, demonstrating that they were planned, directed, and organized. There is no information suggesting that Russian military and civilian authorities have taken any steps to prevent or stop the commission of the crimes,” the researchers conclude.

After months of targeting coastal areas, attacks now focus on the city center and residential areas considered the safest.

Russians master the deadly “double tap”

On May 3, an FPV drone hit a parking lot by the city’s main shopping center, killing one civilian and injuring three. On May 4, more drones attacked downtown, setting civilian vehicles on fire. Meanwhile, artillery and drone assaults on coastal neighborhoods also intensified, said Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, spokesperson for the Kherson Military Administration, in an interview.

“Each week, the Russian military launches guided aerial bomb strikes, followed by artillery shelling—the so-called ‘double tap,'” he said. “Civilian casualties are mounting.”

Due to “double-tap,” a move that Russians have mastered in Chechnya, Syria, and Ukraine, the ambulances cannot pick up the dead.

In April, a drone hit the hospital ER, damaging a hearse with the body of another Russian drone victim, injuring two funeral agency workers.

March 27: when “Armageddon” became daily reality

27 March 2025, is known as “Armageddon”: as the White House proclaimed “energy infrastructure ceasefire,” an unprecedented combined attack hit Kherson, with 37 artillery strikes and dozens of drones killing two and wounding six civilians, and killing several dogs at an animal shelter, in three hours.

More on that dreadful day

“First they shell, then they hunt”: Russia’s savage new civilian terror strategy debuts in Kherson

Later, Armageddon became a daily reality.

First, drones arrive to patrol the skies. Then, a major attack starts either with artillery, shaking the city with a non-stop series of outgoing booms, followed by thin, long whistles, turning into crashing sounds of explosions, or with the aerial guided bomb pulverizing buildings and blocks.

Every five minutes, explosions rock the streets. Shells often hit the power infrastructure, and the electricity goes off.

Life in a city under siege

The city plunges into chaos. Streets and squares remind battle scenes, with cars in flames, power lines torn from the poles blowing in the wind, plumes of black smoke rushing over the sky.

The stench of burned rubber tickles the throat. Drones buzz low and hit public buses and taxis. At the parking lots and sidewalks, drones circle over the injured and dead, crouched in pools of blood.

It is not unusual to discover body parts at the scene. Hiding from the drones becomes easier in summer, with trees providing shelter.

At night, Kherson listens to the louder buzzing sounds of Shahed drones, as well as tanks, mortars, machine guns, and Kalashnikovs fire. Russians are only a few miles away and they try—and fail—to cross the Dnipro River in the dark.

Residents move to the hallways to shelter, but the attacks are so frequent that most only do it if the walls shake and the remaining glass jiggles. Not much glass is left in the windows as it fell out from shock waves and shrapnel pieces. Most windows are covered with plywood.

Walking or driving to a bomb shelter is virtually impossible, as after 9 pm curfew prohibits being outside.

Khersonians stop being outside much earlier. The city is eerily empty, with broken billboards creaking and banging against the walls. Packs of wild dogs roam the streets and are dangerous as they lick blood from the asphalt after the bodies are removed. They attack pedestrians and bicyclists.

In the morning, Armageddon starts all over as FPV drones are flying by the windows, whizzing by, and dropping grenades on any cars driving by.

Russia’s deadly “creativity”

Russian drones now drop anti-personnel landmines on civilians in Kherson

Even gardeners need bulletproof vests

Kherson City Park crews trimming roses and mowing lawns in the Freedom Square, wearing bulletproof vests, came under attack on the last week of April.

Olga Chupikova, the head of the crew, whose son was recently killed in combat, survived the attack as she was inside.

She said, “It was scary. Three cars burned down. Four colleagues were injured.”

While in April people were still outside planting tomatoes and pumpkins on top of temporary shelters and watering flowerbeds by the ruins, by May, the Kherson military administration recommended staying inside due to the increase in drone attacks.

The challenge of reporting from the frontline

Reporting from Kherson is challenging. A special access is needed, and journalists’ protective gear becomes a bait for the Russian drone pilots.

Working without a bulletproof vest and helmet is a serious risk. In colder weather, a hoodie jacket helps, but as temperatures rise, it becomes difficult. Nevertheless, the coverage of this new reality—and the future of modern warfare—is critically important.

Hi, I’m Zarina, a frontline reporter for Euromaidan Press and the author of this piece. We aim to shed light on some of the world’s most important yet underreported stories. Help us make more articles like this by becoming a Euromaidan Press patron.

Ukraine is deploying AI-controlled turrets to combat escalating Russian drone attacks, Forbes reported on 28 May.

The radar-guided weapons operate without human intervention and can defend a small city, according to the fundraising campaign UNITED24.

The initiative has been launched following Russian drone bombardments that have reached record levels. On 26 May, the Ukrainian Air Force reported 355 incoming drones in a single night, an all-time record. This nearly matches the monthly totals from 2024.

Russia produces Shahed drones based on an Iranian design. Recent models carry shrapnel warheads and cluster munitions designed to maximize civilian casualties.

Ukraine’s interception rate has declined from over 95% to 84% last month. Combined with increased drone numbers, more apartment buildings are being hit by the attacks.

Ukrainian sources attribute the decline to concentrated drone swarms and higher flight altitudes. One drone was tracked at 4,300 meters, over 14,000 feet, this week.

Traditional defense methods face limitations. The US produces only 650 Patriot missiles annually, which would be exhausted within days against hundreds of nightly drones. Mobile defense units with automatic cannons remain effective but share human limitations.

The Sky Sentinel system mounts on a mobile trailer and provides AI-powered capability. “It never needs rest, never gets tired, and reacts instantly and precisely to incoming threats at any time day or night,” according to the system description.

The turret uses a standard heavy machine gun linked to target-spotting radar. It rotates 360 degrees to handle attacks from any direction. The system can reportedly hit drones traveling at 500 miles per hour, well above the 120 mph speed of Shaheds.

Ukrainian engineers developed the AI control system domestically. It accounts for wind speed and direction while distinguishing drones from birds and other flying objects.

A fraction of an inch tolerance could cause bullets to miss by yards. The system required zero mechanical play even after recoil. Pointing accuracy reaches 17 micro-radians, less than a tenth of an inch at 1,000 yards.

“We’re solving dozens of micro-challenges so that everything works as a single seamless system,” the engineer stated. “No mechanical slack, no software delays, flawless optics, and precision firing. It all has to work in perfect sync.”

A prototype Sky Sentinel has entered operation and reportedly downed four Shaheds.

The system resembles a low-cost version of the US Navy’s Phalanx Close-In Weapons System. Phalanx uses a six-barreled 20mm cannon firing 75 rounds per second against cruise missiles. The ground-based Centurion C-RAM version defended bases in Iraq but costs $10-15 million per unit.

Sky Sentinel costs about one-hundredth of earlier systems while meeting Ukraine’s specific drone defense needs. A single Phalanx burst costs around $7,000 and may require several attempts per target.

Sky Sentinels will form the inner layer of layered defenses. Interceptor drones, missiles and other weapons will provide outer protection layers.

UNITED24, President Zelenskyy’s official fundraising platform, is raising $1.5 million for 10 Sky Sentinel turrets.

Kyiv endured its third consecutive night of massive Russian drone attacks, with air raid alerts lasting six hours in the Ukrainian capital.

Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, wrote on Telegram that Russian forces struck the capital with attack drones. The assault damaged buildings in the Dniprovsky district, where windows were blown out in one residential building. Debris fell on a garage cooperative and a recreational facility.

“Fortunately, there were no casualties. Thank you to the Defense Forces for their effective work. Thank you to everyone who eliminates the consequences of attacks and helps the residents of the capital,” Tkachenko wrote.

The attack marked the third consecutive massive assault on Ukraine. Russia has conducted its most extensive missile and drone strikes of the full-scale war over the past two days. On the night of 25 May, the Russian army attacked 13 Ukrainian oblasts using dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles plus about 300 drones.

On 24 May, Russia launched a combined strike on Kyiv using ballistic missiles and drones simultaneously. The attack involved 14 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles and 250 attack drones across Ukraine. Air defense destroyed six missiles and neutralized 245 drones. Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said nine ballistic missiles targeted Kyiv specifically.

Russian forces regularly attack Ukrainian oblasts with various weapons including attack drones, missiles, guided bombs, and rocket systems. Russian leadership denies that the army deliberately targets civilian infrastructure during the full-scale war. Ukrainian authorities and international organizations classify these strikes as war crimes by the Russian Federation. They emphasize the attacks have a deliberate nature.

On the night of 26 May, Russia again launched its massive drone attack on several oblasts of Ukraine. Two civilians were injured in a night attack in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, according to oblast Governor Ivan Fedorov.

Russian army reportedly struck the village of Yurkivka, hitting a private house. The house is destroyed. The blast wave damaged nearby houses and cars. A 60-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man were injured. The victims received necessary medical care, according to Fedorov.

In Odesa Oblast, Russian attack drones destroyed a 100-square-meter residential building overnight on 26 May. The strike caused a fire that rescuers extinguished, according to the regional emergency service.

The attack damaged roofs of residential buildings, an outbuilding, two garages, cars, a fence, and a gas pipeline. At another location, two garages were destroyed and caught fire. A residential building was damaged and a car burned.

A 14-year-old resident of Velykodolynske was injured in the nighttime attack on Odesa Oblast. Oblast Governor Oleh Kiper said the boy sustained various leg wounds. Medics provided assistance on site.

More than 10 explosions occurred in Kharkiv overnight. Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that six settlements in the oblast sustained Russian attack. The shelling in Kupiansk killed an 84-year-old and a 58-year-old woman, injured a 60-year-old man and women aged 76 and 68.

In Khmelnytskyi Oblast, private households and enterprises were damaged. Oblast Governor Serhii Tyurin said there were no casualties preliminarily.