Russian drone targets Ukrainian vegetable seller in ‘Safari’ attack
Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russia of committing a war crime after footage emerged showing a Russian drone pursuing and striking a vegetable seller in the southern city of Kherson, leaving the civilian wounded.Video footage shows a drone pursuing a man around a van being used as a roadside vegetable stall before exploding as he dives behind the vehicle for cover. Police said the man, in his 50s, survived the attack but sustained shrapnel injuries and suffered shock.Reacting to the incident, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the latest footage highlighted what he described as Russia’s continued targeting of civilians in Kherson.”Today, many were shocked by yet another video of the drone ‘safari’ Russians are carrying out against civilians in Kherson,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X, adding that “Russia has gone mad” and calling for increased pressure on Moscow and strong security guarantees for Ukraine. “The world must see this. It must see every piece of evidence that Russia has gone mad and that its soldiers take pleasure in killing and abusing civilians. Without pressure on Russia, the dismantling of its capacity for aggression, and real security guarantees, it is simply impossible to imagine the world being able to coexist with this evil. We must remain resolute in defending life. We must act and support life in ways that force Russia to seriously think about peace rather than expanding the range of its drones,” Zelenskyy added. Ukrainian authorities later identified the victim only as 52-year-old Yurii and released a video interview with him from the hospital.According to Oleksandr Prokudin head of the Kherson regional military administration, Yurii had travelled to Kherson that morning to sell vegetables. Prokudin shared the hospital interview on Telegram.Yurii said he and his wife were arranging crates of vegetables beside their van when he heard the distinctive buzz of a drone overhead. As his wife fled, he said, the drone turned its attention to him. He recalled holding up several heads of garlic toward the drone’s camera to signal to its operator that he was not filming it.”It could see that I had tomatoes out, some cucumbers and eggplants laid out on the floor,” Yurii said, as cited by the BBC. “It even ducked under the umbrella when I was running away round the other side.”So-called “safari” attacks, in which drones are allegedly used to hunt civilians, have been reported in Kherson for months. The southern city lies just a few miles from the front line.A 2025 United Nations report said it found that Russian armed forces had “recurrently killed and injured civilians” in the area by using drones to target them.Ukraine has also carried out drone and long-range missile strikes inside Russia, which Russian authorities say have resulted in civilian casualties.Russia on Monday accused Ukraine of carrying out a “terrorist” attack after seven people, including three children, were killed at the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik in what Moscow described as a deliberate drone strike targeting civilians.
