ווידעאו צייגט ווי א רוסישע דראון דרייט זיך ארום א הילפלאזע פארקויפער בעפאר עס רייסט אויף דערנעבן.
Caught on Camera: Russian Drone Hunts Down Unarmed Vegetable Vendor in Kherson
Chilling footage released by Ukrainian police has captured what officials are calling a deliberate war crime unfolding in real time in the southern city of Kherson. The video shows a Russian FPV drone stalking a 52-year-old civilian vegetable vendor from the Mykolaiv oblast as he unloaded produce at a local market alongside his wife. The drone circled the man's stall for nearly a minute before detonating nearby, leaving him with severe blast trauma, shrapnel wounds, and a concussion. The victim survived only after attempting to shield himself and hide, but authorities say the footage leaves no doubt that he was targeted with no indication whatsoever that he posed any military threat.
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the country's Foreign Ministry, have condemned the attack as part of a disturbing and deliberate pattern they describe as "human safari" drone strikes carried out against ordinary civilians in Kherson. According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian drone operators have repeatedly hunted down unarmed residents going about daily life — shopping, farming, or simply walking the streets — treating them as targets for what amounts to a campaign of terror. Reuters has independently geolocated the footage, and the incident has since been corroborated by multiple international news outlets, lending further weight to Kyiv's accusations.
The attack adds to a mounting body of evidence documenting the systematic targeting of civilians in Kherson, a city that has endured relentless drone assaults since Russian forces were pushed back across the Dnipro River. For residents like the wounded vendor, simply earning a living has become an act of extraordinary risk, with market stalls, streets, and homes turned into hunting grounds. Ukrainian officials say they are compiling evidence of these attacks for international war crimes investigations, vowing that those responsible for orchestrating the "human safari" campaign will ultimately be held accountable.
