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The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station captured by Russia is a staging post for “hunting” trips against civilians.
Acting as a base for artillery within mortar range and a nearby drone pilot school, it looms so close to the 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.
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