In late November, Maria, a 22-year-old from Ponyativka in southern Ukraine, gave birth to her second child, a boy named Ivan-after his father-who joined the army in 2023 and longed for a son. Born in Kherson’s district maternity hospital, baby Ivan was the only child delivered that day in a city facing the grim reality where deaths far outnumber births.
The reports are grim, however: against 15 babies born in December, 256 people died and 311 fled. Kherson used to host over 320,000 residents, but it tries to cope now with around 83,000 residents amid ongoing shelling by Russian forces.
In the summer of 2023, the Russian military began to use drones as a tactic, resulting in some of the most harrowing attacks on civilians. Ukrainian officials say at least 16 people have been killed and 144 injured in such strikes in recent months. Drone attacks accounted for only 5 percent of casualties in June, but now they represent 60 percent.
Maria reflects on the family hardships: “Children do not have a normal childhood. My daughter does not go to kindergarten.” The maternity ward was transferred to a basement after the building had been hit several times by missiles.
Kherson, once a vivacious coastal city, now seems a shadow of itself. Thousands fled, but many of its residents have remained, despite the dangers. Aleksander Dorofeyev had returned from Poland to help his community and gave a glimpse of life under the relentless drone surveillance when performing humanitarian work:.
Every time an explosion is heard in this city, Kherson resembles a ghost town. Its residents, however, manage to show incredible adaptability, going about day-to-day routines even when the sounds of violence just will not go away. Thus, the struggle lives on, but hope is still hanging, it seems.
