Ukraine Conflict Monitor
Update
Ukraine war situation update | 4 – 10 April 2026
Russian first-person view drone attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine’s Nikopol district have reached a new level of lethality.
Key stats
1,770 political violence events
5% decrease compared to the previous three weeks
147 incidents of violence targeting civilians
1% decrease compared to the previous three weeks
At least 53 fatalities from civilian targeting
21% decrease compared to the previous three weeks
Key events
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6 Apr.
Odesa — Russian drone strikes on Odesa city kill three, damage homes, and disrupt power for 16,700 households
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6 Apr.
Krasnodar Krai, Russia — Ukrainian drones strike Novorossiysk oil terminal and hit Russian Black Sea flagship Admiral Makarov
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9 Apr.
Ukraine — Ukraine recovers 1,000 soldiers’ remains in exchange for the bodies of 41 Russian soldiers
Key trends
- Russian forces captured a settlement in the Sumy border region and continued pressing their offensive in the Donetsk region and along the Huliaipole axis in the Zaporizhia region.
- Russian forces launched at least 30 long-range missile and drone attacks.
- Russian strikes killed at least 38 civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Donetsk, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Chernihiv, Poltava, and Sumy regions. According to Russian sources, Ukrainian strikes killed 12 civilians in the Russian-controlled parts of the Kherson, Zaporizhia, and Luhansk regions.
Spotlight: Targeted drone killings highlight Russia’s use of “human safari” tactics in the Dnipropetrovsk region
Russian first-person view (FPV) drone attacks on civilian targets in the Nikopol district reached a new level of lethality in early April. Three such strikes on public spaces killed 10 and injured over 50 civilians within three days. On 4 April, a Russian FPV drone struck a civilian market in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk, killing five people and injuring 28. The following day, another FPV drone hit a civilian car in the city, killing one person and injuring another. On 7 April, Russian FPV drones hit two passenger buses in the same area — the first in central Nikopol killed four civilians and injured at least 24, and a second in the nearby Chervonohryhorivka municipality wounded five more.1 These strikes are part of systematic Russian tactics of deliberately using FPV drones to locate and strike civilians, a practice known as the “human safari.”2
This campaign was first documented in Kherson in 2024, where Russian drone operators were reportedly trained on live civilian targets from positions near the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant.3 Since then, it has expanded into other areas of Ukraine, including Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv. The United Nations has confirmed these attacks constitute crimes against humanity and are carried out as part of a coordinated state policy.4 It marks the deliberate repurposing of military drone operations. Drone units trained to hit military supply routes behind enemy lines are instead being used against buses, markets, and ambulances. The pattern of attacks is aimed at restricting civilian movement and instilling psychological terror rather than achieving any military objective. As a result, civilians in affected areas have adapted by installing anti-drone netting over roads, driving without headlights at night, and keeping children indoors.5
