With most of the war fought among villages and small provincial towns, Kherson is the biggest settlement within range of Russian artillery and battlefield drones, earning it the title of Ukraine's most dangerous city.
In his hospital room — staff asked that the location not be disclosed for fear of drawing fresh Russian attacks — Serhiy recalled spotting the drone that hit him.
“I jumped towards a tree, but it tore off my foot, tore off everything,” Serhiy said.
The other bed in the room was occupied by Ihor, a bearded 30-year-old. He too was hit by a grenade dropped from a drone, he said, in his case as he walked along the street trying to find a phone signal, as Russian attacks had damaged cellphone masts.
He also wants the ceasefire to work. “I don't want other people to be brought to the hospital like this,” he said, gesturing to his leg, whose broken bones were being held together by metal rods.
“We believe that \[US President Donald\] Trump will end the war this year, as he promised, and we will have peace,” said Ihor, who also declined to give his family name.
According to Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of the Kherson region, there are between 600 and 700 drone attacks in the city each week.
“They terrorise the population,” he said of the Russian drone operators on the other bank. He said drone operators routinely spot, through on-board cameras, civilians going about their business, and then attack them. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians in the conflict.