Nets once used to protect tulips in the Netherlands are getting a new lease of life – protecting Ukrainian soldiers and civilians from Russian drones.

So are discarded fishing nets and all sorts of mesh that can stop a drone from hitting its target. Across Europe, farmers and fishermen are collecting such items in an effort to save lives thousands of miles away.

Russia’s drones target the Ukrainian army’s supply routes and rear bases, often threatening to cut off units on the front lines. But they also strike hospitals and civilian traffic.

One area frequently subject to drone attacks is the southern city of Kherson, and what the Ukrainians call the “roads of life” that connect it with the outside world – routes that are protected from Russian attacks as far as possible.

“On average, the Russians launch about 2,500 UAVs on our communities every week. As a result of these attacks, 120 people have died in the Kherson region this year,” Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, deputy head of the Kherson Military Administration, told CNN in November.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it verified that 2,514 civilians were killed and 12,142 injured in conflict-related violence in 2025, many of them far from the front lines.

Over the past year, a growing number of nets have been strung up. Hospital courtyards, generators and shopping streets in the city are now protected. On open roads, poles are used to provide a canopy of netting.

“Work is now underway to reinforce roads – dozens of kilometers of routes are already protected by nets,” Tolokonnikov said, explaining that a wide variety of nets have been tested for their durability.

“Thanks to a combination of measures and bold decisions, our military is now able to destroy 80-95% of the drones that the Russians launch at our communities.”

Tulips and tuna

The nets are being trucked across Europe by a variety of volunteer groups. One of the largest – Life Guardians – is run by Klaas Pot in the Netherlands. His team has sent more than 8,000 tons of nets to Ukraine, he says, about half the total received.

Pot began by collecting nets to be used as camouflage for Ukrainian soldiers.

“I knew that these nets had more potential, because they were already starting to use them for anti-drone purposes,” Pot told CNN.

“I know that, for instance, the road between Kherson and Mykolaiv is particularly dangerous and they have made a ‘road of life’ there,” he said, adding that at least part of it is protected by the nets his team have collected.

Tulip nets are made from warp-knitted polyethylene and are lightweight and durable. Normally, they cover bulbs in the ground and are mechanically lifted to streamline harvesting. They can thwart small FPV (first-person view) drones and quadcopters, which are used in their thousands on and beyond the front lines.

Fishing nets are stronger than the tulip nets, Pot said, and so are used more often to protect tanks and artillery. Now, he explained, they are also being used to defend Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure, which comes under Russian drone attack almost daily.

Other groups across Europe have joined in. Operation Change in Sweden collects nets that have gone unused by fishermen because of EU fishing quotas, sending some 400 tons of them to Ukraine to date. Norwegian Volunteer Aid has sent salmon-fishing nets that would normally be recycled after use. And in the United Kingdom, the group Pickups For Peace has included fishing nets from Scottish ports such as Fraserburgh among its regular aid convoys to Ukraine.

During a visit to France in November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took time off from diplomacy to thank a group of French fishermen who are collecting old nets from deep-sea vessels fishing for tuna and other species.

The group, called Kernic Solidarités, has already sent heavy-duty horse-hair nets totaling 280 kilometers in length to Ukraine.

“You are people with big hearts,” Zelensky told them. “I think you cannot even imagine how many lives have been saved thanks to your help.”

The Ukrainian military is especially keen on more supplies of thicker fishing nets.

“There have been several cases where the guys caught (larger Russian) Lancet drones in them,” according to Yuriy Andrusenko, of the 1020th anti-aircraft missile and artillery regiment.

The Lancet can carry two or three kilograms of explosives and reaches speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour (93 mph) when attacking.

“Fishing net will hold it, it simply stops it,” Andrusenko told CNN.

As the stockpile of surplus nets in the Netherlands and Denmark is depleted, Pot is looking elsewhere to keep the pipeline going. “The project is far from finished, and we will be expanding throughout Europe,” he said.

“All our partners have the same motivation, and that is to help Ukraine and to stand on the right side of history.”

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