Inside Nikopol: The only place to hide from Putin’s killer drones is our underground school

In a harrowing dispatch from the frontline city of Nikopol - so close to Russian forces that few journalists have ventured there - World Affairs Editor Sam Kiley talks to children, parents and teachers who are hunted down daily by Putin's deadly quadcopters, yet have somehow managed to survive NewsWorldEuropeSpecial reportInside Nikopol: The only place to hide from Putin’s killer drones is our underground schoolIn a harrowing dispatch from the frontline city of Nikopol - so close to Russian forces that few journalists have ventured there - World Affairs Editor Sam Kiley talks to children, parents and teachers who are hunted down daily by Putin's deadly quadcopters, yet have somehow managed to survive Saturday 21 February 2026 14:57 GMTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popoverInside Nikopol: The only place to hide from Putin’s killer drones is our underground schoolYour support helps us to tell the storyRead moreSupport NowFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreThe Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station captured by Russia is a staging post for “hunting” trips against civilians. Acting as a base for artillery and a nearby drone pilot school within mortar range, it looms so close to the nearby city of Nikopol that one could almost pat the plant’s unstable nuclear domes. Nikopol, still held by Ukraine, has seen its population halve to 50,000 since the war began. About 6,500 of those still living here are children. Lying right on the front line, the city has been attacked every day for the last four years. Roads in are a gamble and gauntlet, a race along icy roads, in hope of avoiding an attack or a freezing crash. First Person View drones (FPVs) are flown by Russian pilots who can see the streets of Nikopol with the naked eye from the nuclear plant across the river. But they go one step further to see the look on their victim’s faces when they dive their quadcopter killers onto whomever they choose to die.Despite this, half of this city’s inhabitants have decided to stay. Hunted as prey, and shelled at random, countless people have been killed by Russia here since 2022, when Vladimir Putin’s forces captured the power station just over the river.Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are opting live in this place they call home, flitting about the streets like the prey they are and sending their children to underground schools.open image in galleryChildren gather underground in the city of Nikopol (Sam Kiley/The Independent)On arrival at School Number 6, the vast main atrium is silent but for a few footsteps. Outside, a not-too-distant crack and thump of a drone that has got through the bad weather and hit the city rattles at the hall windows.A teacher shrugs and leads the way into the cellar to start the day. Its walls are decorated with posters about how to spot unexploded bombs. One shows a red drone with its four engines and gives instructions on how to hide from these new weapons.“Good morning!” chime a classroom full of seven- and eight-year-old Ukrainian children in grade two, the UK’s year 3. Spinning backwards in their chairs to see the visitor in a windowless classroom, they smile and wriggle. Laptops sit on the desks in front of them as their teacher, Iryna Sichkarenko, asks them to recite in English “my name is…”.This is a warm and safe place where they can learn and hang out with friends. Above ground, in the sunlight, that has been impossible for more than half the lives of this class of 20 kids.Putin has increased the pounding of civilian targets over the last year. His troops have singled out the port city of Odesa in the far south, Kramatorsk in the north and the energy systems across the country, for especially violent attention. The Russian president intends to drive Ukraine out of the eastern territories he has already illegally annexed and to cripple the country in the long term.So-called “peace talks” run by the US, which has adopted a largely pro-Russian position and demanded concessions from Ukraine in return for mineral rights and a cease-fire, have delivered nothing.In places like Nikopol, though, the steady state of attacks has changed only with the advent of the deadly-accurate drones. On the battlefield, statistics have been upended - drones kill about 80 per cent of the people they hit and wound the rest. Guns and old fashioned artillery have statistics the other way around.For these children, underg