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Bus driver recounts near-death experience amid relentless attacks
Anatoly Dmytrov was navigating Kherson's Route 14 earlier this month when a Russian drone struck his packed bus at an intersection. Shattered glass and blood filled the cabin as he barely managed to reach a nearby shelter, fearing a second strike.
"I looked in the mirror and saw blood," he told the BBC. "You go to work and you have no idea if you'll come home." At least eight passengers were injured in the attack, which has become an almost daily occurrence in the southern Ukrainian city.
Public transport under siege
Kherson's municipal transport company reports a sharp escalation in drone attacks targeting buses and trolleybuses. Since the start of 2026, three drivers have been killed, eight wounded, and 29 vehicles damaged. Private operators have also lost six buses this year, according to local authorities.
"They've started hunting buses down," said Rita Dobrinova, a manager at the transport company. She described drones using fiber-optic cables-immune to jamming-that hover or scout drivers through windshields. "One bomb dropped directly onto a driver's head on April 11, piercing the roof," she recalled.
Limited defenses and rising casualties
City officials have distributed helmets, bulletproof vests, and drone detectors called chuyka to drivers. Anti-drone nets now cover some busy streets, but the devices offer little protection against fiber-optic drones or new frequencies. "The detector beeps constantly-every hour or so-just to tell you a drone is nearby," Dobrinova said.
Drivers are instructed to stop, evacuate passengers, and direct them to shelters when alarms sound. Eduard Zadorozhny, another driver, survived a May 3 attack on a company van but lost a colleague. When an ambulance arrived, Russian forces struck again-a potential war crime under international law.
"They hit you, then hit you again. They've turned lives into a horror show."
Eduard Zadorozhny, bus driver
Why drivers keep working
Despite the dangers, drivers like Maksym Dyak refuse to abandon their routes. "We need to get people to pharmacies and hospitals-children, the elderly, everyone who's stayed," he said. Dyak, who was hospitalized earlier this year with a broken rib and shrapnel wounds, echoed his colleagues' resolve.
"We work like rats in a cage. Attacked from every side, but we keep driving."
Maksym Dyak, municipal bus driver
When asked if he'd considered leaving Kherson, Dyak was unequivocal: "I was born here, I live here, and I'll stay until the end."
Kherson's precarious position
Once home to 300,000 people, Kherson now shelters roughly 65,000 residents. Though under Ukrainian control, the city remains a prime target as the administrative hub of a region Russia claims. After its 2022 occupation and subsequent liberation, Kherson has faced near-daily shelling from across the Dnipro River.
