Katerina Krupich and her two children watched, with horror, the water released by the Kakhovka dam inexorably climb towards them. They had taken refuge there, without food or water, when their small island of Chaika, on the Dnieper, began to be submerged.
When most of the house was engulfed by the waves and they began to lose hope, they heard the roar of a drone overhead. The drone made several round trips, delivering food and a message taped to a plastic bottle: "Hold on. Don't panic. You will be evacuated. Santa Claus."