Drone terror in Kherson has become the subject of scientific research by a KSU professor
Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor of Kherson State University has prepared a study on the topic «The image of drones as a symbol of continuous Russian terror of Kherson through the prism of oral history».
In an article published in the journal «Pivdennyi Arkhiv» (historical sciences, issue LV), Oleksandr Cheremisin proposes making drone terror a subject of scientific understanding. To achieve this, he used the methodology of oral history, as it allows for penetrating the internal experience of the people directly experiencing this terror.
«Kherson is today experiencing perhaps the most difficult period in its entire history. Since the deoccupation, the city has lived for years under continuous fire terror. So far, this experience has been documented primarily by journalists: reports, documentaries. Scientific studies of drones have mostly regarded them as technology or a military tool. Historical science has almost not touched upon how civilians perceive drone terror from within their daily lives», – says the scientist.
The basis of the study was 37 in-depth semi-structured interviews with residents of Kherson, recorded from December 2025 to June 2026. Among the respondents were 21 women and 16 men aged 18 to 74 from all districts of the city.
According to the historian, their testimonies show that the image of the drone has long since gone beyond the notions of a weapon:
«People describe the drone as a living creature that «sees», «searches», «hovers» and «hunts». They learn to recognize its sound in a second, build routes from shelter to shelter, hide under tree canopies and in building entrances. The basement, which during the occupation was a symbol of torture chambers, has now become a place of rescue and cultural life. Based on these testimonies, I propose a five-level model of the drone image: hunter, personified pursuer, «aerial control» over the city, an acoustic symbol of war, and, ultimately, an integrated symbol of continuous Russian terror. The metaphor of «human safari» describes only part of this experience, and oral history allows us to see it in its entirety. The recorded voices of Kherson residents form the basis of an archive from which future generations will understand what this war was truly like».
Currently, work is underway to generalize the materials, and the body of interviews itself, according to Oleksandr Cheremisin, will be supplemented. In the near future, he plans to publish a series of articles in which these aspects will be examined in more detail.
KSU Press Center