Russian drone pilots stalk civilians as targets as part of sickening Kremlin tactics (Image: Getty)

A man, carrying a rucksack filled with scant supplies from a grocery store, first noticed a dark, squat figure perched on a building ahead as he walked home. Suddenly, a sound akin to dozens of miniature handheld fans whirring into action made his heart plummet.

He could only watch in horror as the lethal Russian drone took off - it had been lying in wait for him.

Like a scene ripped straight from a dystopian sci-fi horror flick, the launch of this drone signaled to this Ukrainian civilian that a Russian pilot somewhere across the front line had chosen him to participate in the grim reality of a "human safari". The civilians of Kherson - situated on Ukraine's eastern front line - are subjected to this terrifying ordeal every single day, hunted like prey by remote aerial death dealers.

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While world leaders such as Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer discuss peace with Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin's war machinery continues to devise new methods to instill fear in ordinary Ukrainians. Catherine Kostryka, a resident of Kherson - a city in one of the regions Putin aims to claim in a peace deal - has lived there since the invasion began in 2022.

Catherine Kostryka and her fellow citizens face daily stalking by Russian drones (Image: Supplied)

She courageously agreed to share her experiences with the Daily Express, providing a chilling account of what life is like when death looms overhead. "The Russian drone pilots are 100% deliberately targeting civilians; they are not even trying to hide it," she reveals.

"If you look through Russian sources, their own Telegram channels and videos, their own propaganda... They call what is happening here a 'safari'. These drone operators are trained on civilians; we can't do anything to them. A few weeks ago, they targeted a one-year-old child. The other day, they targeted women at the bus station."

She disputes the notion held by some that the drones are programmed to locate undercover Ukrainian soldiers.

"I could understand that if it is a bulky-looking man, but when it's a seven-year-old boy playing football in the garden with his friends, I don't believe this is true," she asserts. "It happened the other day, a few kids were playing in the garden and the drone came and just dropped the weapon on them."

Catherine has heard numerous stories of individuals being targeted, including a recent incident involving her mother's friend who was stalked by a drone. In a chilling twist, the drone managed to conceal its location by remaining stationary on a building, much like a spider lying in wait for its prey.

She elaborates: "One of my mum's friends was almost killed by a drone. He was coming home from work and the drone was sitting on some kind of garage and it was waiting for him.

"The drone operator flew it towards him, the guy almost lost his leg, the backpack saved him. He was on fire and had to have plastic surgery, but he survived."

Simply stepping outside has become an exercise in "hyper vigilance" for Ukrainians, explains Catherine, as people must now remember a terrifying wartime survival guide - "look up, look down and listen".

"Whenever you go outside you are always listening and looking at the sky, but sometimes drones are not just flying around, sometimes they will sit on a rooftop and just wait.

"Also, you need to look down as well because the Russians fly over drones carrying small civilian mines and drop them. They are a green camouflage color, so you must be hyper vigilant, or you'll step on one and be blown up."

Russian drone pilots are targeting civilians in a deadly 'human safari' (Image: Getty)

In May, an independent report commissioned by the UN concluded Russian armed forces have "committed murder of civilians as crimes against humanity using drones".

The devastating findings characterized the deployment of these remote weapons against civilians as "widespread, systematic and conducted as part of a coordinated state policy". The report revealed that nearly 150 civilians have been killed and hundreds more wounded due to drone strikes in Kherson city and 16 localities within Ukrainian-controlled territories.

The UN reported that victims were predominantly men, though women and children were also targeted. In a disturbing revelation, the report stated that drone operators "used video feeds transmitted in real time by the cameras embedded in the drones, focused on targets that were visibly civilian, and dropped explosives on them".

Emergency services and ambulances have been hit, leaving many Kherson residents without access to crucial medical care. Catherine believes that Putin's tactics may be intended to instill fear in Ukrainian civilians, but they are actually fueling their anger.

"We all know that drones can see what they are dropping stuff on, it's very delusional to think they are just going after soldiers," she adds. "If you go through the psychology of it, it is hard to kill a person looking them in the eye, but when it looks like a computer game, when you are destroying a pixel and that's it.

"I don't know what to think about the pilots. I think they lost their souls, and I don't know what has happened in Russia to make them such violent beasts. Russia has liked to destroy and make atrocities, just look at Bucha, they like to make people afraid of them. It's a tactic they use everywhere."

From March 2, 2022, until November 11, 2022, Kherson was under Russian occupation, isolating civilians from each other and the outside world. Catherine, who works as a translator, managed to survive those grim days but shared the heartbreaking story of losing her uncle due to the conflict.

"He had heart and liver problems and he died under occupation when the Russians cut off mobile phone signals," she says. "It was a period of time when you could not call for an ambulance, you could not call your loved ones.

"We visited him a few times a week, he didn't want more than that. And then we found him dead. He couldn't call for help and we didn't know he needed it."

She sighs as she recalls: "It wasn't a bullet or shrapnel, but it happened in an environment the Russians created."

Discussing the recent meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska, Catherine remains pessimistic about Western intervention capabilities.

"People from the West don't really understand what Russia is [like]. The Baltic countries they know, we are neighbors and know what they are, so we will fight," she says.

"At the beginning of the war I was hoping for support from the United States, Germany, and Britain. I feel like the West is completely spineless. People say democracy should win, but dictatorship is winning right now."

Attempting to explain the mindset of Russian soldiers and leadership waging war against her nation daily, Catherine describes Putin as resembling a tsar with citizens accustomed to servitude.

Drone nets are one of the low-tech ways to try and stop the deadly aerial attacks (Image: Supplied)

She adds: "From the Russian perspective, they have had him in power as president on and off for more than 20 years. A lot of people were born while Putin was president so they don't know what it is like to have a different president, they don't know what democracy is... Putin is their tsar.

"We Ukrainians, like a lot of Europeans, we hate our own government, but it's a normal thing to do. They don't do what we want them to do, so we protest, call them names, but this is normal."

She may not be a fan of President Volodymyr Zelensky, but she acknowledges that the nation has rallied behind him "to get the Russians out of our country".

She continues: "Putin had a famous saying when he became president along the lines of: 'Any person who stays in power more than eight years, goes insane'. Well, he's been in power more than eight years, and he has gone insane.

"He lives in a golden castle of his own mind, and he believes he is incredible and has his own delusions that people in Russia love him.

"And he believes that Ukrainians will love him, but we hate him, and we will not be his slaves no matter how many drones he puts in the sky."

Her eyes are filled with resolve as she says, "If we are in a safari, we are the lions who are going to eventually eat the hunter."