DW investigation unveils how Russian drones target civilians
Mathias Bölinger, Head of DW Investigations: "These attacks leave little traces and much of the area is inaccessible due to the frequent attacks. Sometimes a digital footprint is the only evidence of these attacks. This is why the team had to rely on open sources like the Telegram channels of Russian soldiers and politicians. The story highlights how important it is to look closely at what is happening near the frontlines in Ukraine. A new pattern of war crimes is emerging here."
A team of DW's investigative unit and DW's Kyiv bureau worked on the topic for six months, analyzing hundreds of Telegram posts and mapping drone attacks in Beryslav based on reports from Ukrainian authorities, survivors' accounts, and Russian Telegram channels. The team was supported by the Ukrainian Archive at Mnemonic and the Centre for Information Resilience’s Eyes on Russia Project.
The result is an investigation that documents, for the first time, a new pattern of possible war crimes: civilian casualties via the use of first-person-view or FPV drones. FPV drones provide the pilot with a real time image of the target, thus making it hard to not recognize civilian individuals as such. DW reveals that Russian soldiers may have used drones to indiscriminately and systematically target Beryslav’s civilian population.
The investigation by Julett Pineda, Igor Burdyga, Esther Felden and Nina Werkhäuser is available to viewers in English, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish and Arabic.