The Kherson Region: How Russia Uses Civilians as a Tool of War
The Kherson Region: How Russia Uses Civilians as a Tool of War MeidasTouch Network Jul 2 Guest article by Zarina Zabrisky, Meidas Defense’s Kherson-based correspondent An American journalist, writer, and filmmaker from San Francisco, Zarina Zabrisky moved to Ukraine at the start of the full-scale invasion, and has been reporting from Kherson city since its liberation in November 2022. In 2024, as the only foreign journalist based there, she was the first to document “human safari,” the Russian tactic of FPV drones targeting civilians. For her work, she has been sanctioned by Russia and awarded by Ukraine. Working on her upcoming documentary, a sequel to her first critically acclaimed Kherson, Human Safari , Zabrisky discovered an underreported genocide. Two Classmates Volodymyr and Olena grew up together in Olehsky, a resort town on the Dnipro. In winter 2026, after Olena’s house burned, her mother was killed by artillery, and her husband died without proper medical care, she moved int...