Russia has been chasing civilians who live near the front line in Ukraine with drones, hounding them out of their homes and hunting them down, forcing thousands to flee whole areas in what amounts to a crime against humanity, a U.N. inquiry found.

The report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine described civilians who were chased over long distances by drones with mounted cameras, then sometimes attacked with firebombs or explosives while seeking shelter.

"These attacks were committed as part of a coordinated policy to drive out civilians from those territories and amount to the crime against humanity of forcible transfer of population," said the 17-page report to be presented to the U.N. General Assembly this week.

Its findings were based on interviews with 226 people, including those targeted, witnesses, aid workers, and local authorities, as well as hundreds of verified online videos.

The attacks described in the report occurred in three regions in southern Ukraine, near the front line and across the Dnipro River from Russian forces, over a period of more than a year.

Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians in Ukraine, although its forces have killed thousands of them since it invaded Ukraine 3½ years ago. Ukraine has also struck civilian infrastructure targets in Russia and Russian-held parts of Ukraine, though on a smaller scale.

One woman from Kherson was pursued by a drone in August 2024 as she parked her car and was attacked and injured by it as she sought refuge in her garage, the report said. Two more drones arrived the same day and struck her home — which she then abandoned, it said.

The drone attacks caused a sharp decrease in the population in some areas, the report said, with only older people and those with impairments remaining in some places.

"There can be no doubt about these drone operators acting with intent," Erik Mose, chair of the inquiry, told Reuters. "They are really pursuing human beings, be they in their gardens, at home or in the street."

Some of the survivors interviewed by U.N. investigators said they felt hunted, and Mose said perpetrators also used the term in drone videos posted online.

Even fire brigades, medics, and other first responders have been hit, depriving Ukrainians of emergency services where they're most needed, the report said.

The U.N. inquiry said in May that such attacks amounted to the crime against humanity of murder. 

The report also documented that Russian authorities have coordinated actions to deport or transfer civilians from areas of the Zaporizhzhia region under their control, in what it said amounted to war crimes.