THE IMAGE OF DRONES AS A SYMBOL OF RUSSIA’S ONGOING TERROR IN KHERSON THROUGH THE LENS OF ORAL HISTORY

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the image of drones as one of the key symbols of Russia’s ongoing terror against the civilian population of Kherson during the post-occupation period, based on oral history materials. The study aims to identify the characteristics of individual and collective perceptions of unmanned aerial vehicles in the minds of the city’s residents, analyze their place within everyday wartime experience, and identify the main conceptual images through which the civilian population interprets the constant threat of aerial attacks by Russian forces. Particular attention is paid to the transformation of the perception of drones from a technical means of warfare to a symbol of total control, constant danger, technological exhaustion, and the destruction of familiar patterns of everyday life. The study’s methodology draws on the principles of oral history, using semi-structured in-depth interviews as the primary method for documenting the individual experiences of war eyewitnesses. The source base consists of interviews with residents of Kherson, recorded during the post-occupation period from December 2025 to June 2026. The analysis employed methods of oral history interpretation, historical-comparative, historical-anthropological, and historical-psychological methods, which enabled a comprehensive analysis of the empirical material, the identification of recurring semantic patterns, and the reconstruction of the collective image of drones in the everyday consciousness of the civilian population. The article argues that the image of the drone in the respondents’ accounts goes far beyond its perception as a type of modern weaponry. Respondents attest to the formation of a complex, multi-layered system of perceptions, within which the drone emerges as a mechanism of constant aerial surveillance, a means of personalizing violence, an instrument of selective persecution of the civilian population, and a factor in the transformation of everyday practices. Central to the consciousness of most respondents is the image of the drone as a “hunter” carrying out the practice of so-called “human safaris”; however, the analysis revealed that this image is only one component of a much broader system of perceptions regarding Russian terror. Alongside this image, the drone emerges in respondents’ narratives as a symbol of modern warfare, a source of fear and psychological pressure, an instrument of surveillance and control, a distinctive everyday sound signalling danger, and a marker of constant exhaustion and tension. The conclusions argue that the image of the drone in the collective memory of residents of post-occupation Kherson has become one of the most important symbols of modern Russian terror, embodying the experience of constant danger.