'The basement saved me': Frontline Ukrainian city under fire amid US peace push
Russian attacks kill or injure around 20 people each day, local officials say.
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officials → save → people
For Natalia Sergienko, a humanitarian worker and the director of the Kherson Power of the South public organization, the past month brought two close calls.
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month → bring → calls
The first came when she was driving in the so-called "red zone" -- an area which Russian military-linked Telegram channels have declared an open-fire area but that includes heavily populated parts of the city.
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that → come → city
"Thank god, it flew past my car, then it was shot down," Sergienko told ABC News in an interview in early September.
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Sergienko → thank → September
Days later, Sergienko was taking a phone call close to her organization's humanitarian headquarters.
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Sergienko → take → headquarters
"A few seconds later I heard the sound of a drone behind me.
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I → hear → me
It was not far," she recalled.
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she → recall → ?
Sergienko said she ran, desperately seeking cover.
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she → say → cover
"The basement saved me," she said.
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she → save → me
The city sits along the banks of the Dnipro River, which since Kherson's liberation by Ukraine in the fall of 2022 has formed the frontline between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the southern theater.
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which → sit → theater
Every day, the city is hit by Russian artillery, drones, missiles and air-dropped bombs launched from the opposite bank.
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city → hit → bank
Russian attacks on the city kill or injure around 20 people each day, local officials have said.
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officials → kill → people
It was in Kherson that the phrase "human safari" was coined to describe Russian operators using FPV drones to hunt and kill civilians.
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phrase → coin → civilians
Videos of the attacks are routinely shared on Russian military-aligned Telegram channels.
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Videos → share → channels
The United Nations' Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said such attacks constitute crimes against humanity.
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attacks → say → humanity
As the White House stokes new hopes -- however distant -- of a peace deal to end Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now deep into its fifth year, frontline cities like Kherson, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and many others face the possibility of an open-ended war regardless of any deals struck in far-off Moscow or Kyiv.
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cities → stoke → Moscow
The Kherson region is one of four the Kremlin claimed to have annexed in September 2022 referenda that were widely dismissed as sham elections.
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that → claim → elections
Those four regions claimed by Moscow -- Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk -- are on both the geographic and ideological frontlines of the Kremlin's war of aggression.
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regions → claim → aggression
Almost 80% of Kherson's pre-war population of around 283,000 people have already left the city, whether in the opening days of the invasion before Kherson was occupied by Russian forces, or in the period since its November 2022 liberation, Oleksandr Tolokonnikov -- the deputy head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration -- told ABC News.
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Tolokonnikov → leave → News
Local government data shared with ABC News reports that at least 1,502 people -- among them 40 children -- have been killed by Russian fire in the Kherson region since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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people → share → February
Another 9,625 people have been injured.
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people → injure → ?
At least 46,900 civilian infrastructure facilities have been damaged or destroyed, including more than 44,500 homes and apartment buildings, the data shows.
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data → damage → homes
FPV drones pose a ubiquitous threat, Tolokonnikov said.
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Tolokonnikov → pose → threat
Residents get no warning of the small craft crossing the river to attack, and those guided by fiber optic wires -- which are increasingly common -- are difficult to jam.
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which → get → wires
"Russian occupiers use them as a tool of deliberate terror against civilians -- drone operators don't care who they target," he explained.
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he → use → who
Civilians on foot -- including children -- taxis, buses and even ambulances are routinely attacked, Tolokonnikov said.
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Tolokonnikov → include → children
The drones are "a really huge problem," Tolokonnikov continued.
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Tolokonnikov → continue → ?
In August alone, authorities recorded 27,210 Russian drones launched across the river.
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authorities → record → river
, he added, accounted for 80% of civilian casualties across the month, killing 30 people and wounding 393 others.
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he → add → others
The Russians are currently launching around 6,500 drones against Kherson each week.
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Russians → launch → Kherson
The scale of Russian drone, artillery and air-dropped bomb attacks on Kherson are all increasing, he said.
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he → drop → Kherson
In the first half of 2026, for example, Russian jets dropped 117 aerial bombs on the Kherson region.
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jets → drop → region
Across the 31 days of August, the Russians dropped 100.
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Russians → drop → 100
Alongside the nonstop attacks, the Ukrainian-held city is now also grappling with a severe energy crisis caused by Russian strikes.
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city → hold → strikes
Earlier this month, Kherson Regional Military Administration head Oleksandr Prokudin urged residents to leave, warning that the electricity supply to the city is now equivalent to that received by a single Kyiv supermarket.
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supply → urge → supermarket
Ukrainian officials are expecting another winter of intense Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, a tactic Moscow has employed each winter of the full-scale invasion in a bid to freeze the country into submission.
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Moscow → expect → submission
Kherson will not be able to rely on its remaining heat and power plant this winter, Tolokonnikov said.
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Tolokonnikov → rely → plant
Russian guided aerial bombs destroyed the facility in August.
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bombs → guide → August
Authorities expect that 10% to 15% of remaining residents might leave for the winter months, Tolokonnikov added, perhaps more if the situation deteriorates further.
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situation → expect → months
Last weekend's shuttling of President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner between Moscow and Kyiv did not appear to jumpstart significant progress on the road to peace.
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shuttling → appear → peace
…and 33 more, not listed.
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