Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Russia of hunting civillians with drones, viral video shows one attacking vendor

WARNING: Graphic footage.

Ukraine has accused Russia of committing a war crime after a video on social media showed a drone chasing down and wounding a vegetable seller in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.

Footage shared by Ukrainian police shows the drone pursuing a man around a van being used as a street stand before exploding as he dives for cover behind the vehicle.

Police said the man in his 50s survived but suffered shock and shrapnel injuries.

The video appeared on a Telegram channel in Kherson and was later shared by the local police, although its origin remains unclear.

Ukrainian officials later identified him only as a 52-year-old called Yurii and released a video interview with him from a hospital ward.

“Today, many were shocked by yet another video of the drone ‘safari’ Russians are carrying out against civilians in Kherson,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, saying that “Russia has gone mad” and calling for strong security guarantees for Ukraine.

“We must act and support life in ways that force Russia to think seriously about peace rather than expanding the range of its drones.”

Reuters verified the location using buildings, the road layout and vegetation that matched satellite and archive imagery.

The date could not be independently confirmed but Ukraine’s police and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the incident happened on Tuesday.

The vegetable seller went to Kherson in the morning to sell produce, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration.

Prokudin released a video interview with the man on Telegram.

“I only just put up the umbrella and started unloading the boxes. My wife was there, too. Then we heard it buzzing but could not even see it. It came from somewhere behind the market, from those bushes over there, and flew in very low,” said Yurii, sitting in a hospital ward.

“It is open steppe. There is nowhere to go. It is terrifying, of course. Really terrifying.”

On the video, Yurii showed his wounds on both legs and also on his back.

His wife ran off and was not injured, he said.

Speaking from a hospital bed, the man said he tried to signal to the drone operator that he was only selling tomatoes and aubergines.

Sybiha said the attack formed part of a deliberate Russian campaign to intimidate civilians.

“This barbaric Russian war crime in Kherson demands international condemnation and justice but thousands of similar crimes never come to the public eye,” he wrote on Telegram.

In the southern Kherson region, Ukrainian and Russian troops are facing off across the Dnipro River.

The regional capital, Kherson, lies within range of remote-controlled small drones, and there are repeated reports of targeted attacks on civilians.

In July, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it had documented 1396 civilian deaths and 7978 injuries in the first six months of 2026, marking a 37 per cent increase from 2025 and more than double the figures from 2024.

It said that the surge in civilian casualties was primarily driven by intensifying Russian long-range missile and drone strikes targeting cities far from the front lines.

Ukraine is also attacking Russia with drones and long-range missiles, many of which have caused civilian casualties, Russian authorities say.

Russia on Monday accused Ukraine of terrorism after seven people, including three children, were killed at its Black Sea holiday resort of Gelendzhik in what it said was a deliberate Ukrainian drone attack on civilians.

A Ukrainian official said that the drone only fell on the beach in Gelendzhik because it was shot down by Russian air defences, adding that “Ukraine uses its weapons exclusively against the Russian military-industrial complex and economic infrastructure facilities”.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

with DPA