New Drone Video Shows Russian ‘Human Safari’ Targeting Kherson Vegetable Vendor
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of “going mad” after the release of drone footage showing a Russian attack drone stalking a vegetable vendor through a Kherson market before exploding near him.
The incident took place on Aug. 4 at a market in Kherson, according to the Kherson Regional Military Administration, which released the video. The footage shows a drone hovering near a man standing beside a minibus, then tracking him as he moves behind the vehicle. Moments later, the drone dives toward the bus and detonates near its front, close to the spot where the man had been standing.
“A Russian drone deliberately hunted down a man selling vegetables and detonated right next to him,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “The Russians even admitted to the crime, showing zero regret and openly boasting about tormenting people. The man was wounded in the blast. Every single day, ordinary people in Kherson face these Russian ‘safaris.’”
The vendor, identified as 52-year-old Yuriy, survived. Speaking from a hospital bed, he told the BBC that he and his wife were setting up their stall when the drone appeared. His wife ran to safety, but the drone remained focused on him. Yuriy said he put out vegetables to show that he was not carrying a weapon.
“It could see that I had tomatoes out, some cucumbers and eggplants laid out on the floor,” Yuriy told the BBC. “It even ducked under the umbrella when I was running away round the other side.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the attack as a “barbaric war crime” and called for international intervention. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office has opened 5,303 criminal cases into drone attacks on civilian targets in the Kherson region. Those attacks, according to the office, have killed 287 people and wounded 2,549 others, including 41 children.
Prosecutors described the violence as a systematic pattern. In what Ukrainian officials now call “human safaris,” FPV drones have repeatedly tracked and struck civilians in public places, homes, transport hubs and civilian vehicles. In some cases, authorities say, drones also hit emergency workers who arrived after an initial explosion.
The new video has sharpened concerns that drones are being used not only as tactical weapons but as instruments of terror against noncombatants. Deliberately attacking civilians is prohibited under international humanitarian law, and the footage reinforces Ukrainian allegations that Russian forces are treating populated areas as hunting grounds.
Zelenskyy said the video should be seen by everyone, adding that Russia’s campaign against human life cannot be confined to Ukraine. He called on Finland, Kazakhstan, the Baltic states, Poland, Romania, Moldova and the countries of the South Caucasus to work together on real security guarantees and to bring the war to an end. “Peace is needed,” he wrote, “and it requires cooperation among everyone in the world who truly values peace.”
The release of the footage comes about a year after a one-year-old boy was killed by a Russian drone in the Kherson region while playing in a playpen in his grandmother’s backyard. Ukrainian officials have cited that and other cases as evidence of a broader campaign of drone attacks on civilians.