Ukraine’s ‘Venice’ faces relentless Russian drone attacks

VYLKOVE, Ukraine: In a town without basements, residents of Ukraine’s “Venice” on the Danube have no way to hide underground from the increasingly frequent Russian drone attacks on the country’s river and deep sea ports.

Vylkove, a small tourist and resort town, sits at the mouth of the Danube. Like in Italy’s Venice, canals replace roads, and boats replace cars for local residents. Border guards, who are constantly trained, say the only way to avoid drone attacks is to shoot them down.

Ukraine has said Russia is deliberately hitting port infrastructure and commercial vessels to disrupt Ukrainian food exports, key to millions of people in northern Africa and the Middle East. The attacks have intensified dramatically over the past week and Vylkove is often in the path of drones.

Pickup trucks with machine guns, assault rifles, searchlights and thermal imaging cameras help fight off attacks, said a former computer teacher, now a soldier with the call sign IT. “In general, we also have training every day. This also includes training and physical exercises, as well as preparing weapons, preparing vehicles, checking all systems to ensure that everything works as it should, in good condition,” he said.

Anger towards Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, guides the soldiers’ actions, he said. “Otherwise, there are no emotions at all. So we just have to do our job and that’s it. Emotions come later,” IT said. Drone attacks usually begin in the dark, when black drones cannot be seen in the night sky. Without a basement to hide in, Yulia Kapitan, the owner of the Delta Hotel, protects her child by covering her with her own body on the bed. “I say to her, “Milana, shh, shh, shh, shh,” so that the child is not so much frightened. There’s a bright flash, the lights go out, this explosion, the sound of the explosion. It’s forever memorising what your eyes saw in that moment.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Moscow had attempted to push back Ukrainian positions in the Russian Kursk region but that Kyiv was “holding the line.”

Ukraine has held on to swathes of Russia´s Kursk region since early August.”Regarding the Kursk operation, there were attempts by Russia to push back our positions, but we are holding the lines,” Zelensky said.