A Russian drone pursued and attacked a civilian street vendor in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, in footage released by Ukrainian authorities that President Volodymyr Zelensky described as evidence of a Russian "safari" against civilians. The video, verified by multiple news organisations using satellite and archive imagery, shows the drone circling a man beside a white van loaded with crates of produce before chasing him around the vehicle and exploding on impact. The man, identified only as Yurii, a vegetable seller in his early 50s, survived with shrapnel wounds to both legs and his back, a concussion, and trauma.
Speaking from a hospital bed, Yurii described arriving at the market with his wife to sell tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and garlic when he heard a buzzing sound. As his wife fled, the drone turned its attention to him. "I held up some heads of garlic to show the operator that I was not trying to film it," he said. "It even ducked under the umbrella when I was running away round the other side." His wife escaped unharmed. BBC Verify geolocated the footage to a market space beside a roundabout in the Tavriiskyi district of northern Kherson.
Kherson, a city on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, sits only a few kilometres from the front line. Russian forces occupied it briefly after their full-scale invasion began in February 2022 before being driven out, and a large portion of the surrounding area has since been declared a military zone by Moscow. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the attack a "barbaric war crime" and described it as part of a deliberate Russian strategy to intimidate civilians. "The sadist operating this drone knows full well that he is targeting a civilian," he said, demanding international condemnation. Russia's defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment and, as is its consistent position, denies targeting civilians.
The incident is part of a broader pattern documented by international monitors. A 2025 UN report found that Russian armed forces had "recurrently killed and injured civilians" in the Kherson area by using drones to hunt them, and noted that posting videos of such attacks online itself constitutes "the war crime of outrages upon personal dignity." The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission recorded 1,396 civilian deaths and 7,978 injuries in Ukraine in the first six months of 2026 — a 37% increase on the same period in 2025 — driven largely by intensifying Russian long-range missile and drone strikes. June alone saw nearly 300 civilian deaths, the highest monthly toll since April 2022.
The attack comes amid a wider escalation on multiple fronts. Russian glide bombs struck the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy overnight, killing two children and an elderly woman, according to local authorities. Meanwhile, Ukraine has intensified long-range drone strikes on targets inside Russia, including distribution warehouses of the retail giant Wildberries, causing significant damage. Russia accused Ukraine of terrorism after seven people, including three children, were killed at a Black Sea resort; Kyiv said the drone came down there only after being intercepted by Russian air defences. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.